The Orre Ribbon Cup
by Immaginos
Summary: The Orre Region is hosting its first Ribbon Cup, and the region's passion for Double Battling means that Coordinators will compete in pairs. May has teamed up with her greatest rival in an attempt to accomplish what has thus far eluded both of them: a victory at the Grand Festival. Of course, they might just kill each other first. It's hard to say. Slow-Burn ContestShipping
1. Brave New World

Gateon Port, for all its undeniable charm, wasn't a lively place. The inhabitants, having spent years watching ships drift lazily in and out of the harbor, had grown accustomed to a laconic lifestyle, and an infectious one at that. Tourists were fairly rare in Orre, but the people that did come enjoyed the languid days that the small port town had to offer, often extending their stay in the region for an extra day or two when they couldn't quite bring themselves to leave. The one exception was the Krabby Club. There wasn't a night that went by where the lively seaside bar wasn't jam-packed with an audience. Men, women, and Pokemon of all ages and sizes lined the tables, each one merrily tapping a foot to the music or applauding Razell and Dazell's latest magic trick. Waitresses scurried hither and thither, attending to the every need of customers who greeted them with easy smiles and twenty-percent tips. It was easy to see why the friendly people of Gateon Port seemed so mellow: they saved all of their energy for enjoyment of the nightlife.

Drew Hayden was one such visitor who'd become a regular at the Club, although he attended more for the food than the people. Orre was still relatively isolated from the rest of the world, but the famous Coordinator was nonetheless far from an unknown. He'd been mobbed by a half-dozen members of his fan club almost before he'd stepped onto the dock two weeks ago. The Krabby Club, though, had enough dark corners where he could enjoy dinner and a show without being bothered too much, especially after the rest of the town had become more acclimated to the presence of a foreign celebrity in their midst.

Today, Drew had come for a late lunch and now sat at one of the few outside tables, the harsh Orre sunlight blocked by a striped umbrella overhead. He was munching lightly on a sandwich as the cool sea breeze rustled his perfectly-coiffed green hair. Gateon's daily newspaper, the _Port Reporter_, lay beside his plate, held down by a small rock he'd picked up along the walk from his hotel.

"_Ribbon Cup Set to Kick Off Soon!", _read the headline, and below: "_The Orre region's first Ribbon Cup is scheduled to commence in just over a week with the first contest in Mica City. There was quite a buzz when the Cup was announced last year, and after a long wait, it seems the excitement is beginning to pick up once more as it draws near. For those of you unfamiliar with Pokemon Contests, you're in for a real treat!" _Here, the article went on to explain the basic rules of Contests, as there was indeed a considerable portion of Orre's population who had never seen one before.

Drew skipped ahead a bit. "_Our region, in an effort to generate more interest, has put a bit of a spin on the Cup, however. Orre is somewhat famous for its passion for Double Battling, and the Contests will be no different. Both the Appeal Round and the Battle Rounds will involve two Pokemon for each team. Yes, that's right, 'team.' Each Coordinator will be performing with a partner for the duration of the Ribbon Cup._

"_Each team that manages to win five ribbons from the various contests being held all around the region will get the chance to compete in the inaugural Orre Grand Festival, taking place at the world-famous Realgam Tower."_

"_Many top-tier coordinators have been confirmed to be competing this year. These early favorites include the duo of Zoey Foster, the winner of the most recent Sinnoh Ribbon Cup, and her best friend Dawn Berlitz, the runner-up of the same event. Joining them in competition will be the team of Solidad Hart, a former winner of the Kanto Grand Festival, and Harley Davidsen. And, of course, there's the perennial contenders Drew Hayden and May Maple, two extremely talented and innovative rivals who have driven tabloids crazy with long-standing theories that there may be more to their relationship than meets the eye."_

"Tch." Drew stopped reading there and went back to his sandwich, shaking his head between bites. "They really can't help themselves…" He gazed out at the serene waters, the newspaper's words ringing in his head. It was becoming somewhat frustrating to have every publication in the known world grasping at the supposed romance between the two, although he had to admit that it had cut down on the number of fangirls that tried to ask him out. Every cloud had a silver lining.

He finished off the remainder of his sandwich and tossed the paper plate into a nearby trashcan along with the paper. The only item left on the table was a fresh red rose that Roserade had produced for him early that same morning, which he picked up and placed in an inside pocket of his jacket before heading off toward the docks, giving a friendly smile to the occasional passerby who happened to be lazily drifting in the opposite direction.

Drew had no way of knowing when May's ship was arriving at Gateon. The Port's waters were as tranquil as could be, but that wasn't true of the sea a little further out. Storms were frequent but completely unpredictable, and they often snuck up on even the most experienced of sailors. For this reason, seacraft did not operate on any sort of schedule, arriving at Gateon Port at completely random intervals. In addition, Orre's ships, particularly the passenger ships, were built much more sturdily than in the past following the _S.S. Libra_'s disappearance seven years ago, which had the side effect of lowering the speed a bit. Drew, though, was nothing if not prepared. He'd made it a habit to wait on the docks for his partner, partly because he didn't have anything better to do (he'd decided to give his Pokemon some time off before the Ribbon Cup kicked into gear, so training wasn't an option), but also because he really was looking forward to seeing her.

And he always made sure to bring a fresh rose. Just in case.

At the docks, he was greeted by a young man helping to tie off a fishing boat that had just come in from its morning expedition. He was several years older, but Drew had gotten to know him fairly well during his time there. He turned and straightened when he heard Drew approaching, lifting a hand in greeting.

"Afternoon, Drew. Come out to wait for the ghost ship again today?"

"Well, Perr, it's either that or spend the afternoon in the Parts Shop with your granddad again, listening to him talk about his latest invention. Or one of the old ones." Drew paused to give one of his signature hair flicks. "I almost feel like _I _could build a functioning Robo Kyogre at this point."

Perr chuckled. "I hear ya, and trust me, I feel your pain. Just think, I had to grow up with him." He bent to finish knotting the rope and reached down to help pull the fisherman up, then lifted his red cap to wipe some sweat off his forehead before looking back at Drew. "I haven't heard anything about any passenger liners coming in today, but like I've said before, that doesn't mean a whole lot. As always, you're welcome out here. That is, as long as you, uh..." He paused to wave a hand at the otherwise deserted pier and grinned. "Don't get in anybody's way."

Drew chuckled and thanked him as the lanky older boy loped away. He took his seat on the edge of the dock, leaning his weight back on his hands and looking once more at the sea. It was peaceful as far as he could see. He briefly considered lying down and taking a little nap, but that plan was foiled in its beginning stages by a loud metallic clanking and the sound of laughing children.

He looked over at Gateon's Rotating Bridges, which he knew had become more of a historical marker than anything else in the past few years. Sure enough, there were young kids playing with the arrows that controlled them, spinning the bridges as quickly as they could. Before, they had been the only pathways to certain places in the Port, including its lighthouse and even a few residential homes. The obvious inconvenience had apparently been lost on the founders, and over time it became one of those things that people tolerated simply because they didn't really feel like doing anything about it. That had changed recently, as Perr had told him one day. Most of the residents that had homes on the water were people that rarely had to get to the mainland in the first place, or people that had Water Pokemon to take them across whenever necessary. One of the members of the first category was a crotchety old widower who just wanted to be left alone, which made him a prime target for Gateon Port's adolescence. At some point, a group of bored teenagers had discovered that the old man came over to town every second Sunday to buy groceries, so they made it a point to go out during the middle of the night on the preceding Saturdays and rotate the bridges in such confusing ways that it often took the collective efforts of the town hours to sort out in the morning. Eventually, the victim of these pranks got tired of it and waited up one Saturday night for the would-be pranksters to arrive, then sent his Poochyena after them. One was Tackled into the water. He escaped with nothing more than a bruise on his leg, but the incident, along with the fact that mechanical malfunctions were occurring more and more frequently, was finally enough to spur some action from the Mayor. A series of concrete bridges had been hastily constructed, and the Rotating Bridges were now just a quirky little tourist attraction for people to read about in the Orre region's guidebook, not to mention a source of great fun for the young kids who had little else to occupy their time.

Drew glanced down at his belt where he kept his Poke balls. There were just three. After Johto, he'd given some thought to the possibility that his act was becoming a bit repetitive, so he had chosen to leave a couple of his Pokemon at home and bring only half of a complete team, consisting of Flygon, Absol, and naturally, his trusted Roserade. He hoped to capture one or two new additions to his roster in Orre. He knew, of course, that wild Pokemon were relatively scarce and mostly came from the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn regions, but they had been popping up more frequently as of late. Anyway, he wasn't particularly worried even if such a search proved fruitless. May would be bringing Pokemon of her own, and there was no shortage of viable combinations for Appeals between the two of them.

He thought about releasing one of his companions just to keep him company, but quickly decided against it. Absol didn't particularly like the sunlight, Flygon would get bored, and Roserade would just tease him for a while about waiting for May so obsessively and then get bored. So he turned his gaze back to the horizon and watched for any indication of an approaching ship but, finding none, he let his mind wander a bit, back to that day in Johto that had led him to this situation in the first place. He remembered it like it was yesterday, although it'd been six months ago.

* * *

"_And your winner, advancing to the finals, Solidad!"_

_Drew sighed heavily, recalling his exhausted Absol and giving him a few words of encouragement before heading to center stage to shake the hand of his rival. "You beat me again, Solidad."_

_The beautiful pink-haired Coordinator smiled at him. "It was a lot closer than the last time, though," she said. "It won't be long before you pass me by. I'd better not let my guard down." She laughed gently. "See you soon, alright?"_

_Drew nodded. "Good luck in the finals," he said, and turned towards the crowd, giving them one last bow and a flip of his hair before turning and walking solemnly backstage. He lingered for a moment as the roar of the crowd echoed behind him, making sure that he didn't look too downcast since he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who'd be waiting for him when he walked through the doors of the locker room._

_Sure enough, the first thing he saw when he pushed open the door was his biggest rival. There was a sad smile on May's normally vibrant face, but she seemed to brighten a bit after seeing that Drew wasn't too crestfallen._

"_I really thought you had her this time, Drew!" She said, and then bit her lip, nervously looking away. "You… You looked really good out there today."_

_Drew blushed lightly; thankfully it went unseen. "Yeah, well… I always look good. This is me we're talking about, remember?"_

_She looked back at him now, sapphire blue eyes ablaze. "Oh, come on! I try to give you a compliment and that's the response I get?" She got right up in his face, her volume increasing with every syllable. "Well, I just learned my lesson! Just see if that ever happens again! Ugh! I don't know why you always have to be such a-"_

_She was cut off by the rose that had suddenly appeared under her nose, and she recoiled, hesitatingly accepting it, her face as red as the flower. "Oh, um… Thanks, Drew."_

_Drew couldn't resist smirking at her sudden change in attitude. Almost before he knew what he was doing, he placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Good luck out there, May. That Marina's no pushover, but I know you can beat her."_

_May was obviously surprised by the sudden contact, not to mention the soft words of confidence. He could hardly blame her. It was, he reflected, probably the nicest thing he'd ever said to her, and to the best of his recollection, he'd never touched her before. Certainly not so tenderly. After a time, though, she gave him a sweet smile and nodded. "I'll do my best."_

_Drew returned the smile and, with a flick of his hair, he removed his hand and started walking toward the exit until he heard May's voice behind him._

"_Wait! You're not staying to watch?"_

_He looked back over his shoulder at her. "Nah. I'm gonna take a little walk. It's a nice night, you know?"_

_May looked a little disappointed, but she quickly put a smile back on her face. " 'Kay. I'll catch ya later, then. Bye, Drew!"_

_He raised a hand in goodbye and resumed his walk while the PA system blared overhead. "And now, for our second semifinal match, give it up for May of Littleroot Town and Marina of New Bark Town!" He walked a few more steps and then, satisfied that he'd waited long enough for his rival to stop watching him, turned back around and made his way to one of the TVs in the room. He'd never let May know it, but he wasn't going to miss this match for anything._

_The battle was, as he'd expected, exciting. May was using an Altaria that she'd caught as a Swablu early on during the Cup, which quickly became one of her go-to team members. Her opponent, the Pokemon Idol Marina, had chosen a powerful Feraligatr that seemed to have a somewhat strange nickname that he couldn't quite hear over the roaring of the crowd. They fought for the entire five-minute period, but when the smoke cleared, Marina's points were just a tiny bit ahead of May's._

_Drew let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and unclenched fists he hadn't realized he had been clenching. He watched the screen for another few moments as May walked over to congratulate her opponent, and then gave the crowd a little grin and wave before descending the steps of the stage._

"There's my cue," _he thought, turning on his heel quickly and exiting the building out into the cool night air and brightly lit streets of Goldenrod City. He pulled his jacket a little tighter around his body and began heading in the direction of the Pokemon Center. He didn't get far before he half-turned, staring back at the Contest Hall. Some small part of him was urging him to go back and talk to her, but ultimately, it _was _just a small part, and he continued on his way._

_Nurse Joy was waiting dutifully behind the counter, although she was distracted by the TV showing the final match of the Johto Grand Festival. Drew walked in just in time to see Marina hoisting the Ribbon Cup above her head, smiling warmly at the legion of fans in attendance. _

"_Wow," Drew said in wonderment as he approached the desk. "Solidad lost, huh?"_

_Nurse Joy turned around and looked at him, seeming surprised. "Well, yes. You didn't stay to watch?"_

"_I wanted to, but Absol needed healing after the beating she put on him," he explained. Which was the truth, if maybe not the whole truth._

"_Of course, of course," Nurse Joy said as Drew handed her his Poke balls. "I was sorry to see that. I was pulling for you." He didn't answer except with a polite smile, so she went on. "Where are you off to next? Planning to go to Orre?"_

_He looked at her quizzically. "Orre?"_

"_Heard of it?"_

"_Well, yeah, once or twice, but why would I go there? They don't have Contests, do they?"_

"_They just announced their first Ribbon Cup! Hold on a moment, I think I have a magazine around here someplace." She rooted around under the counter for a minute. "Now, where did I put it…? Ah, here it is." She straightened and handed him a copy of one of the many Contest magazines in circulation. He looked down at it._

"_This is dated for earlier this week," he commented._

"_Mm-hmm. I guess you were probably focused on preparing for the Festival, huh?"_

_Drew nodded and opened the magazine to the page indicated on the cover, grimacing as he caught a momentary glimpse of an article speculating on his relationship with May as he flipped through. He skimmed the article on the Orre Ribbon Cup. " 'These Contests will all be conducted under Doubles rules, with a special twist,' " he read. " 'Not only will there be two Pokemon, there will be two Coordinators working as a team-' " He looked up. "Wait, teams? Come on..."_

"_Is that an issue? We all just assumed you'd ask May," she teased, a hint of a smirk appearing on her face._

_He glared at her. "Who's we?"_

"_The Nurse Joys, of course! As well as pretty much everyone else who follows Contests."_

_He opened his mouth to retort but then closed it dumbly as he began to consider her words. Why _wouldn't _he ask May? His list of Coordinator acquaintances was, admittedly, pretty short. He really wanted another rematch with Solidad, so that option was out. There was no way he'd choose Harley the sociopath. There was Brianna, but she could barely speak to him without fainting. There was no telling how she'd respond to actually being onstage with him. And, if he was being honest with himself, he had a lot of respect for May's abilities and he realized that she knew him better than any of the others, which would come in handy when working together. Also, he realized with a bit of a pang that he hadn't seen May as much as he wanted to while he was in Johto._

"_I'll think about it, I guess. This Double Contest thing sounds interesting, and it's not like I have any better options," he said finally, trying his best to sound indifferent._

_Nurse Joy gave him another knowing smirk, utterly unconvinced. "Glad to hear it. I'll take your Pokemon back now and call you when they're ready, alright?"_

"_Thanks."_

_Drew walked over to one of the couches and laid down, hands behind his head. He let out a long breath, suddenly realizing how tired he was. _

"_Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a minute," he said out loud, but he had no sooner gotten comfortable than the doors opened and May trudged in slowly, clearly disappointed by her earlier loss. She didn't notice him. _

_He watched as she made her way over to the counter and had a short conversation with Nurse Joy before handing over her Pokemon and turning around, finally seeing him in the corner and, after a moment's hesitation, walking over. She tried to smile, but her heart wasn't in it. She didn't seem to have anything to say, either, so Drew spoke first._

"_I take it the Festival didn't turn out the way you were hoping."_

_She looked down and shook her head wordlessly. _

_Drew cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Uh, listen, May…" He didn't understand why he was so nervous. He was Drew Hayden. He didn't get nervous. But he was about to do something completely out of character, and he was having difficulty forming words. "Um… Have you heard of the Orre region?"_

_May finally looked up, a little confused but certainly intrigued. "Orre? Yeah. My dad went there once. He told me a little about it. Why?"_

_Drew cleared his throat again, silently cursing himself for acting this way. "Well… They're holding a Ribbon Cup there and it starts in a few months, but…" He took a breath while May looked on curiously. "The thing is, every Coordinator has to compete with a partner and I was wondering if you wanted to be mine." The last half of that sentence had come out much faster than he'd intended. He knew he was blushing and hoped fervently that she didn't see it._

_Apparently it took a moment for his offer to register, because she just looked at him in total disbelief. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"_

_He frowned. "I'm not that cruel."_

_The first signs of a smile were beginning to take shape on his rival's face. "Let me pick my jaw up off the floor real quick. The great Drew Hayden wants me to be his partner?"_

"_Less and less with every word that comes out of your mouth."_

_She made a big show of turning away, crossing her arms, and closing her eyes, allegedly in deep thought. Drew rolled his eyes, but then she spoke. "Hmm… I dunno. I mean, I'd have to travel with you and everything. I'm not sure I could handle that much Drew…"_

_Drew groaned and lifted his hands to his face exasperatedly. He was already starting to regret this._

_She opened one eye and grinned. "Weeeeeell, I guess so." Drew perked up a bit, somewhat relieved. "Just try not to hold me back too much."_

"_That's supposed to be my line," he remarked drily, returning the grin. "I think I'm rubbing off on you."_

"_Oh, Arceus, I hope not…"_

_Drew saw Nurse Joy motioning to him out of the corner of his eye and stood up. "Well, it's settled, then. I'll be in touch, all right?"_

_May nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "Deal."_

"_Heh." He gave her a last hair flick before starting to walk away, still a bit embarrassed. "Good night, May."_

"_Good night, Drew," came the soft reply._

* * *

Thinking back, Drew had to laugh a little when he remembered how her defeated expression had turned so excited when he'd told her about Orre's Contests. It amazed him sometimes just how bipolar she could be.

He had written her a letter a month ago, telling her that he was leaving early because his family was driving him insane, and that she should make sure to arrive with enough time left to make it to the first Contest a few days prior so they could have some time to train with each other. She'd written him back promptly, saying that she had her ticket bought already and assuring him that she'd be there in plenty of time. Drew was relieved to see that her planning-ahead skills had improved, but she'd neglected to mention exactly when she was leaving, which meant that he had even less idea as to when she'd arrive than he normally would have. And, unfortunately, it was beginning to look like today would not be that day.

He heard a commotion behind him, which turned out to be a group of people heading in the direction of the Krabby Club. He glanced at his watch in surprise, not realizing just how late it had gotten (maybe he'd dozed off after all), and stood. Apparently he was assimilating into the lazy Gateon Port lifestyle more than he thought. With a last look at the expansive blue sea, he turned and followed them.

He'd be back tomorrow. And he'd bring a fresh rose.

Just in case.

* * *

**AN: **Hey, ladies, fish, and gentlemen, if you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading!

So, here's the deal: when I originally envisioned this fic in my head, I was hoping to get a good chunk of it written before I started uploading chapters so I wouldn't be one of those people who stops in the middle of the story because other things in life start dominating time and you don't really have a lot of chances to write. Unfortunately, that happened anyway, and I've only got a few done out of a planned 50+.

However, I'm still interested in doing this eventually and so I decided to upload the first chapter regardless and see if any readers even care. If there's not a lot of support behind it, whatever, I won't stress about writing any more of it and it'll just remain as kind of a quirky oneshot. If there is, though, I can make a conscious effort to make time for the story, force my way through writer's block when it comes, and you'll have a completed fic at some point or another. I can't promise it'll be soon, but it'll happen eventually. I'm not going to set a specific review goal or anything like that, it'll just kind of be my feeling. Even just a review of "I like it." will be very helpful.

And, if any of you awesome, interested people could do me a huge favor, I'd really appreciate it. I found a drawing of May on DeviantArt one day with an outfit I really liked, and I want to use it in the story. Problem is, I'm a guy that knows literally nothing about women's clothing and I have no idea what to call the things she's wearing in the picture. So if anyone wants to help out by giving me a description, shoot me a PM and I'll send you the picture and my undying gratitude. Otherwise, Chapter 2 (provided there is a Chapter 2) is just gonna have a really stupid-sounding description and nobody's gonna know what the hell I'm even talking about.

I apologize for the long author's note; I promise it'll never happen again. 'Til next time, y'all.


	2. White Pearl, Black Oceans

The _S.S. Capricorn _was a hulking beast of a ship, but for all of her size and power she possessed a magnificent ability to glide across the sea as smoothly and soundlessly as a half-asleep Lapras. Orre had spared no expense when commissioning its newest prize passenger liner, and the region's impressive technological proficiency had ensured that she was the envy of ocean liners the world over. In fact, just before her maiden voyage the previous year, Orre's proud Governor had boasted (much to the nervousness of the ship's engineers) that she could even withstand a Surf attack from an angry Kyogre without capsizing.

As it turned out, her latest journey from Hoenn did not involve an angry Kyogre, but it was far from smooth. She had sailed straight into a massive storm, easily force ten on the Beaufort wind scale. The Governor would have been proud to know that the _Capricorn_ was living up to her reputation of not capsizing, but she wasn't doing much else, either. Below deck, the eight combustion engines' soothing hum was drowned out by the clamor of the waves crashing against the hull, and the normally impressive top speed they granted had been slowed to little more than a crawl as the ship pitched violently under the pressure of the wind and water. Even by the standards set by the temperamental Orre Sea, this was a storm for the ages.

Inside her cabin below deck, May was unhappy. So were the occupants of the cabins on either side of her, which made her even more unhappy, not just because of her empathy for her fellow suffering human beings, but because their heinous retching was easily audible through the relatively thin walls and it was making her own retching much more frequent. She knew they weren't alone. Every passenger aboard was unhappy. Even the crew was unhappy. The only person onboard who wasn't unhappy was the apparently unflappable Captain, a man named McLeod, who had come on the shipwide speaker system no less than four times in just the past ninety minutes, cheerfully assuring the miserable travelers that there was nothing to worry about and that they would sail out of the storm "eventually." As far as May could tell, McLeod was an experienced seagoer who was perfectly at home in this environment and would probably have regarded any unhappiness on the part of said travelers as an early symptom of insanity. She had to admit that there was something calming about his borderline nonchalance; she supposed it was preferable to his running about the ship panicking.

She glanced out of the porthole in her cabin, but saw only the same dull blackness that she had grown used to in the past few days. The clouds in the sky had reduced visibility to basically zero even in the daytime, and even if they hadn't, the only thing there was to see was the sight of the waves rising thirty-plus feet in the air, towering above the ship. The fifteen-year old Coordinator was no stranger to sailing, but the ships on which she'd traveled in the past had encountered, at worst, light showers. They had certainly been nothing like this. She was horribly seasick, not to mention lonely. She hadn't seen her Pokemon in more than two days. They were cozy in their Poke balls, and she had no intention of subjecting them to the horrific discomfort she was experiencing just for the sake of their companionship.

The _Capricorn _lurched again, and she clamped her arms tightly around her stomach, stopping herself from scurrying to her bathroom again, instead settling back miserably onto her bed and taking a few deep breaths.

_I wish Drew were here, _she thought, and then sat up with a start, a blush creeping across her face, nausea momentarily forgotten in her embarrassment. Had she really just thought of him? On some level, she could certainly believe it. She'd depended on him for comfort more than once during the Johto Cup. It had taken her quite a while to get used to traveling on her own, and at the times where she was losing her confidence after a particularly rough loss, her green-haired rival had been the only one there. His ideas of comforting rarely involved words of encouragement, of course. Drew didn't really go for that sort of thing. But he always listened, and he always had some sarcastic, cocky comment to make that lightened the mood considerably. Or, more accurately, it usually just made her mad enough to start yelling at him. Either way, it never failed to bring her out of her funk, and she felt better after than she did before. She didn't know if that was completely by design on his part, but she was grateful all the same. It didn't happen often, but it was always appreciated.

She looked down at her hands and sighed. She could feel her cheeks burning with the blush that hadn't really gone away. Any time she thought of Drew, she found herself going back to Chrysanthemum Island, replaying that conversation with Brianna in her mind.

"_Oh, yeah? Well, I wanna know if you like Drew!"_

"_Like him? To be honest, I've never really given it that much thought…"_

It had been a lie then and it would be even more of a lie now.

Unfortunately, even with so much thinking spread across so much time, she'd never arrived at an answer. It was enough to give any teenage girl a headache. _Or, _she thought, grimacing as the ship was rocked by a particularly large wave, _maybe that's just my seasickness again._

She laid back down. One thing was for sure: she was looking forward to traveling with him. Johto had been very lonely. That was enough of an answer for now.

Another huge wave. And another. And another. May's confidence in McLeod was beginning to wane. Her logical mind told her that she was perfectly safe on the luxury liner, but every instinct in her body was telling her that a grisly death at sea was becoming less of a possible contingency and more of an inevitability for all the jolly Captain seemed to care to the contrary.

She closed her eyes. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to sleep, but she was tired of counting the ninety-six tiles on the roof of her cabin over and over (well, ninety-five and a half, as she reminded herself - the fifty-third one had the air conditioner embedded in it) just to give herself something to do. For a few minutes, she tried to distract herself by reciting the Pokedex numbers of the known Pokemon, but quickly discovered that her mind didn't even have enough energy to be distracted in the first place.

She groaned. _I really hope we get to Orre soon. Or, at least, the storm calms down._

* * *

The storm, as it happened, seemed to be heartily enjoying itself and did not share her sentiments. It continued its unrelenting assault on the poor passengers' stomachs right up until the time that Gateon Port began to take shape in the distance, at which point it quickly subsided, shrinking away as meekly as a frightened Joltik. The roar of the wind died away to a whisper, and the brutal waves had become so passive that they might as well not have been there at all. The engines were humming again, daylight had started to stream through the portholes, and the _S.S. Capricorn _was positively shimmering in the sun as May awoke from a restless sleep, looking, naturally, not at all rested. She blinked a few times to gain her bearings, the fact that she could see colors outside and not just inky darkness taking a moment to register. When she did realize it, it was difficult to stop a grin from taking over her face. Except for one little detail: she was still fairly nauseous.

"Attention, all passengers." Captain McLeod was back on the speaker, the jovial tone of his voice the exact same as it had been during the storm. May wondered idly if, aside from the brightness, he noticed any difference at all. "Attention, all passengers. This is your Captain speaking. We will be arriving in Gateon Port within the hour, so please make sure you have all of your belongings packed up and ready to go. On behalf of the Orre government, I hope you have enjoyed your voyage onboard the _S.S. Capricorn _and hope to see you again real soon!" There was a crackle and a click, and McLeod's voice disappeared, none the wiser to the disbelieving looks that the speaker system was no doubt receiving from the passengers.

May rose groggily, and, having most of her things already gathered, set about making herself look like she hadn't spent the better part of the trip bent over a toilet. She had deliberately avoided looking into a mirror during her bout with seasickness, but after forty-five minutes of alone time with it, she looked more or less like herself again. She gave her cabin one last search to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, checked her backpack to ensure that her Pokemon were still inside, and sat down on her bed to await their docking, still a little woozy, but with the excitement of a new region and a new journey beginning to take hold.

It wasn't a long wait. Captain McLeod was as good as his word. The _Capricorn_ began to slow within five minutes, and in another five she was drifting into Gateon Port with the same laziness that every ship which had ever docked there had at one point shared.

May stood up and opened her door, but before she could step out into the hallway, it filled up with her fellow passengers, all of them momentarily forgetting their common courtesy as they pushed and shoved each other in an attempt to get off their nightmare ship as quickly as possible. She shared their eagerness and then some, but didn't much feel like getting trampled, so she hurriedly closed the door, waiting until the racket had died down to cautiously reopen it and peek outside. Sure enough, the only people left were those that still looked as though they were trying to shake off some seasickness, slowly staggering down the hall as if in a drunken stupor. May walked by with an apologetic smile that clearly showed that she shared their pain and ascended the steps up to the deck of the ship, taking her first breath of Orre.

The healing effect of the fresh air was miraculous. She felt totally refreshed. She almost would have felt like she imagined the entire awful experience had there not still been some small pockets of water on the deck where the sunlight hadn't quite reached.

After a few more breaths, she located the gangplank leading down onto the pier and walked down, resisting the urge to kiss the solid ground. There were quite a few people milling around, as a ship coming in to Gateon Port was always a fun event to break up the otherwise monotonous days. Plus, as she had found out from some of the passengers she'd befriended before they had all quarantined themselves in their cabins, a good number of Coordinators aboard the ship had family in Orre that wanted to see them when they disembarked. May slowly scanned the crowd cautiously, looking around for a head of green hair, not entirely sure if he'd be there. She didn't have to look for long.

Drew had gone through quite a growth spurt in the past year or so, and stood taller than most of the people on the pier. As May hurried to greet him, though, she could see that not much else had changed. His hair was slightly longer and his jacket now had full sleeves, but otherwise his outfit was identical to the last time she'd seen him. Same black shirt, same teal pants, and, she saw with a slight blush, the same piercing emerald eyes, the ones that always seemed to stare right through her and read her mind, the ones that could also take on a surprising gentleness when he deemed it necessary. He was handsome, there was no doubt about it.

"Hey, Drew!" She exclaimed with a smile when she finally reached him. Her smile faded slightly when she realized he was looking at her confusedly. "Drew? What's wrong?"

He stared at her a moment longer, then suddenly said, "Oh, right! You're that girl who volunteered to be my sidekick for the Ribbon Cup here. What's your name again? June? April?"

"DREW!" She cried, taking another step towards him and then, finding that she had to stand on her tiptoes in order to yell in his face, started giggling instead. "Wow, I have to look up to talk to you now! Weird. I used to be a teeny bit taller than you!"

Drew smirked and gave his hair a flick. "Puberty, May. Don't worry; you'll go through it someday, too."

He was pulling the rose out from inside his jacket even as he spoke, anticipating some manner of loud retort from the girl. Unfortunately for him, that particular distraction wasn't working this time.

"You think you can just wave a rose in my face and I'll ignore that?" She shouted, swiping the rose from the stunned boy's hands nonetheless. "Not this time, Drew! I'll have you know I've gone through plenty of changes of my own! Look at my ch-" May broke off just in time to avoid further embarrassment, her face coloring deeply as she realized what she was about to say. She found something very interesting to look at several inches to the left of Drew's face, then, gingerly sliding the rose into her hair behind her ear, smiled sheepishly. "Er… Thank you. It's beautiful, as always." She gave him a sly look out of the corner of her eye. "Sorry to disappoint you, though. Beautifly isn't with me."

Drew blinked, hopelessly confused for the second time in as many minutes, before realization struck him. _Oh, right. Beautifly. The original reason for the roses. _

He smirked again. "Oh, really? Well, give it back, then."

May pulled away from his outstretched arm and laughed. "I don't think so! It's mine now."

They stood there for a moment, still smiling, Gateon's gentle waves lapping against the concrete beneath their feet. Neither one would admit it, but they'd missed teasing each other. After a time, Drew turned and beckoned to May. "Well, come on. You can get checked in at the hotel and then I'll show you around."

She fell in step beside him and then gave him a questioning look. "The hotel?" She asked. "I was just planning to stay at the Pokemon Center like usual."

Drew shook his head. "The Pokemon Centers in this region don't have rooms for travelers," he explained. "It's a hotel or a park bench in Orre." Then, hearing May give a small sigh, he continued. "What's the matter? Worried you can't control yourself around me in a hotel room?"

"N-no! Dream on, grasshead!" She turned away with a loud harrumph, crossing her arms as she felt her face burning again.

Drew chuckled and gave her a sideways glance, realizing for the first time just how ridiculous his puberty comment had been. His old rival looked almost like a completely different person. Her hair was still in its signature palm tree style, but it was pulled more to the front, the two sides framing her face like curtains. She'd grown it out in the back, too, and she had it tied in a loose ponytail that fell almost to her hips. Her red outfit ensemble had returned and, while similar to the one he'd grown accustomed to, it seemed more mature somehow. She still had her trademark bandanna, but it was tied loosely around her neck instead of her head. Her eyes hadn't changed, though. Those sapphire gems, the ones that trapped him sometimes if he wasn't careful, still sparkled.

He smiled to himself. He had always thought her cute, but she was really blossoming into a beauty.

She spoke suddenly, breaking him out of his thoughts. "We aren't... really in the same room, are we?"

"Nah," he said, deciding to stop teasing her for the time being. There would be plenty of time for that on the upcoming adventure. "Trust me, I have no desire to share a room with a teenage girl. I've got older sisters, so I know what they're like in the mornings. I'd rather have the bathroom to myself."

May didn't have a comeback ready, so she settled on pointedly sticking her tongue out at him. They walked the rest of the way to the hotel in a comfortable silence, the doors opening automatically to let them in, Drew doing the gentlemanly thing and stepping aside to let his companion go first before following her to the reception desk.

"Hi!" She greeted the receptionist with a smile. "I'm May Maple, I need a room for the night."

The receptionist smiled back. "Hello, Miss Maple. We already have a room ready for you. Your friend Drew took care of it a few days ago." She slid a card key across the table and pointed behind herself. "Room 21, right down that hallway there. We hope you enjoy your stay."

May took the card and turned to Drew, looking at him in surprise. "You… paid for my room already?"

He shrugged. "I didn't know when you were gonna get here, and I didn't want to take the risk of all the rooms filling up. Like I said, I didn't want to share one with you."

"Oh, wow. Thanks, Drew. That was sweet of you." She stopped, as if suddenly hearing what she'd just said, then placed a gloved hand on his forehead. "Letting me come in first, getting a room for me… All these sweet things. Are you feeling alright?"

He brushed her hand away. "Must be the Orre heat getting to me. Next thing you know I'll be writing sonnets for the fangirls." He gestured down the hallway the receptionist had indicated. "After you."

They proceeded to her room and May inserted the key card into the slot. The door didn't unlock. She tried again, with no more success. She heard Drew clear his throat beside her, then take the key and turn it upside down before handing it back to her. The third time was the charm. She groaned, embarrassed, then pushed the door open and went inside.

The room was small, but cozy. May dropped her backpack onto the bed and met back up with Drew in the hallway. "I believe you promised me a tour now?" She said.

He gave his hair a flick. "So I did. There's not a whole lot to show, but I'll try and keep it interesting since I know you're easily distracted."

She rolled her eyes. "Maybe you just have a boring voice," she retorted with a hint of a smile.

"Yeah, whatever. You coming or not?"

* * *

Just an hour later, they were seated at a table in the Krabby Club. Drew had been right in that the tour didn't last long, but May had enjoyed it. She was no different from any other visitor; Gateon Port had her under its charm.

It was the evening, and May had finally worked up an appetite. She had more than made up for her trip on the _Capricorn_ with all the food she'd already consumed. Drew looked up from his modest salad and shook his head in wonderment at the petite girl who was working on her fourth plate. "I don't know how you can eat so much."

She made to speak and then, remembering her manners, swallowed first. "I just like food, okay? And anyway, you weren't on that ship. I think I threw up everything I've eaten for the past month."

Drew raised his hands in resigned acknowledgment. May had complained at length about the "cruise from Hell," as she called it, during the tour. "Alright, alright, no more details. I won't say another word about it."

He directed his attention to the stage. The Club's entertainment for the night was relatively tame, just a man and a guitar, but he had a beautiful singing voice. He must've been something of a regular, because several of the patrons were singing along with him. May gulped down another few bites and then looked at the performer longingly. "I wish I could sing like that."

"I've heard you sing once or twice. You're not half bad."

The compliment caught her off guard, and she directed her gaze back at him. "What?"

Drew smirked. "It's better than your Coordinating, anyway."

"Ha. Ha." She would've made some suitable remark, but then another question came to her. "When have you heard me singing?"

"You do it sometimes when you're training," he said, casually taking a sip of his tea.

"You've watched me train? Creeeeepy."

"It's not like I hide in the bushes. I'm always standing in plain view. You just never notice me because you're so obsessed. Anyway, you're my rival. It gives me an idea of your strategy so I can counter it."

"So then I guess that means you've watched Solidad train a lot too, huh?"

_Whoops. _He hadn't expected that one. He looked up from his tea and was met with raised eyebrows. Apparently she didn't completely believe that story.

"Okay, you got me. You have a more interesting style than most and sometimes I get curious to see how you come up with your appeals." It wasn't the whole truth, but it seemed to satisfy her, for she nodded in understanding and went back to her food.

Drew took another drink of his tea, somewhat thankful that the dim lighting of the Krabby Club made it impossible to see his reddened cheeks. May was surprising him with her perceptiveness. He would have to be more careful with his words than he was in the past.

It was another few minutes before May finally sat back in her chair and sighed contentedly. "Alright, I'm done. I don't think I can eat anymore," she said.

"In that case, there's one more place I should show you before we turn in," he replied. "Assuming you can walk after all of that food."

"I can walk just fine, thank you very much. Lead the way, Mr. Tour Guide."

They rose and strode out of the Club, the tenor voice of the guitarist slowly fading as they passed into the night air. Drew led his companion across one of the concrete bridges to Gateon Port's lighthouse, which he had pointed out earlier but hadn't said much about. Her eyes widened when they arrived at the door, and she craned her neck to look up at it.

"Wow," she said at last. "It's even taller than the one in Olivine, isn't it?"

"Not by much, but yeah, that's true."

The door opened to allow them entry, and Drew took her straight to the elevator in the center that did the same. He pushed the "up" button and within seconds, they'd arrived at the roof, where she followed him up the curving steel steps to the highest point of the lighthouse. He pointed out at the sea.

"Nice view, huh?" He asked.

"Wow," she said again, and nodded. "It's beautiful…"

The sun was barely visible over the horizon, so that the water looked as though it had caught fire completely of its own volition. The vibrant red and orange only gave way to the blue when it came close to shore, mellow waves lapping against the _Capricorn_ still docked in the harbor. It was a sight unlike anything she'd ever seen before.

"Really beautiful," she amended. She took a seat on the precipice and swung her slender legs over, letting them dangle. Drew stayed standing, moving beside her to lean on the guardrail. He took in the view for a moment, but then his gaze drifted to the seated girl. There was a bright smile on her face, and soon he found himself smiling as well. His mind wandered back to that day in Fennel Valley several years ago, when they were in almost this exact same position. They had grown so much, seen so much. They had grown together, in more ways than one, and in that moment, he knew that he had made the right decision in asking her to come here with him.

Drew had always been someone who valued certainty above all else. He'd wake at the same time every morning and know exactly where he was going that day. When he would train, when he would eat, when he would retire for the night. Everything was meticulously planned to the last detail.

May was the polar opposite. She'd go wherever inspiration happened to take her, almost without thinking. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her when they'd first met. Part of him had always admired that casual lifestyle, that merry willingness to stop thinking about life so much and just enjoy it. Part of him yearned for it.

And so he was looking forward to this journey. He didn't know what it had in store for him, except that it was doubtlessly going to force him to just cut loose for once. There would be difficulties he'd never encountered before as well; he had no illusions about that. Such were the perils of having a traveling partner with such a different personality. But that was okay. That was a chance to grow a little more.

He turned back to the sea. May was right, it really was beautiful out there. The sun was sinking ever farther below the horizon and the hour was growing late, but neither of them felt like moving an inch.

* * *

**AN: **Well, there's the second chapter. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who reviewed and followed; y'all made this happen. Hope you enjoyed Chapter 2 and that it was up to the high standards y'all have set for the story already. I decided, for simplicity's sake, to just give a vague description of May's outfit since it's really not important in the grand scheme of things. If you're curious about it, though, the one I had in mind was created by a DeviantArt user called Nishi06 as part of her "Pokemon Legends" series, and she's done some great stuff for quite a few fandoms, so check her out.

As you all probably gathered, I'm not gonna be uploading new chapters on any sort of hard schedule, but I can promise a finished fic eventually now. Thanks again, everybody.


	3. Little Talks

May still had a few hours of sleep left in her when Drew knocked on the door to her room the next morning.

"Come on, May, wake up!" He yelled, banging away.

Slowly, laboriously, she pushed herself out of bed, walking slowly over to the door and opened it, Drew's hand still suspended in the air in mid-knock. She gave him her best death glare.

"I need my beauty sleep, grasshead," she said at length.

He looked her up and down. Her eyes were half closed, bedhead had her hair jutting out in crazy directions, and she was tired enough that she hadn't even bothered to change out of her daytime outfit last night. "It's not working so far," he replied sarcastically.

She groaned loudly and slammed the door in his face, ignoring a last call to hurry up. She headed to the bathroom and, after washing her face and brushing her hair, smoothed out her clothes and grabbed her backpack, leaving the room and meeting her partner in the hallway, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed impatiently.

"You know, when I agreed to travel with you, I didn't realize I was going to have to get up so early in the morning," she said.

"May, it's half past nine."

"That's early as far as I'm concerned!"

Drew rolled his eyes at her and started down the hallway, waiting for May to catch up before speaking again. "Mica City's to the northeast of here. The contest is in four days, and the receptionist said it's just a day's walk from here, so we should have plenty of time to get our appeal plan ready. Oh, yeah, and that reminds me. You said you didn't bring Beautifly, right? Which of your Pokemon do you have with you?"

"Blaziken, Altaria, and Glaceon. I was hoping to catch some new members while I was here, so I decided to just bring my 'A' team. How about you?"

"I pretty much decided the same thing. I've got Roserade, Absol, and Flygon." He rubbed his stubbled chin thoughtfully. "We definitely have a strong battling lineup. Shouldn't be too difficult to put some appeals together, either. And I guess, if all else fails, we can call some of the old guard back anyway."

By this time, they'd exited the hotel, and soon they had left Gateon Port behind and started toward Mica City. Orre's northern landscape was grassy and much more friendly to on-foot travelers than the desert section of the region, so their journey wasn't difficult. Really, May could scarcely believe how smooth it was. She'd been worried that traveling with Drew would be at least a little awkward, but he continued to surprise her with how shockingly easy he was to talk to. He didn't always say a lot, but he was actually a good listener and she was enough of a chatterbox that there were never any uncomfortable silences. Even his insulting wisecracks were less frequent, and even the ones he made were more clever than outright offensive, and she found herself giggling at them a few times in spite of herself. She had matured quite a bit since she'd last seen him, and she was starting to see that maybe he had, too.

"How come there aren't any wild Pokemon around?" She asked at one point.

Drew snickered. "I kinda had a feeling you hadn't bothered to read the guidebook for the region."

"I was a little preoccupied on the trip over here with trying not to vomit, remember?"

"Whatever. Pokemon don't show up in the wild very often in Orre. As a matter of fact, they were hardly ever seen at all until seven years ago when a man named Duking discovered a few places where they tended to gather. He called them Poke Spots. Some other people have found a couple more since then, but there's still not a lot. Luckily they tend to have a pretty good variety of species."

"So we're really gonna have to hunt for those new team members, huh?"

Drew shrugged. "I'm hoping not. They're all pretty close to towns so they won't really be too far out of our way. It's just a matter of whether the Pokemon feel like showing up."

May took a few moments to look around at the open sky as she considered his words.. There wasn't much to look at. Off in the great distance she could see a large mountain rising high over the horizon, a single white cloud drifting listlessly over it. Other than that, the environment was mostly empty. It was basically a large, grassy plateau. Orre was flat. Still, it was beautiful in its way. There was something truly intoxicating about a place that had been all but untouched by man and Pokemon alike. Pure nature. She pointed the mountain out to Drew.

"That's Mt. Battle," he said. "The guidebook called it 'the ultimate challenge for trainers looking to test their mettle against the best!' Or something like that."

"Are we gonna go there?"

"Maybe. There's a contest scheduled there, but it's pretty late in the Cup, so with any luck, we'll have our five ribbons before then."

"We could go to watch. Size up the competition, yeah?"

He regarded her thoughtfully. "Yeah, we could do that."

Around noon, Drew called a halt for lunch, and they located a shady spot to rest in. He dug around in his pack for a moment and then produced three Krabby Club sandwiches, tossing two to May, who unwrapped them and began eating.

"And here I was expecting a nice meal cooked over a fire," she joked.

Drew, his mouth full, shook his head and then swallowed before answering. "I'm not much of a cook," he confessed. "I usually get groceries to make sandwiches and stuff in towns so I can just eat that on the road. Since the Krabby Club's food was so good, I just decided to stock up."

"You mean there's something in the world Drew Hayden isn't great at?" May gasped, eyes widened in mock horror, but Drew ignored her, so she just smiled to herself and took another bite. "They're definitely tasty," she agreed. "I'm not the world's greatest cook, either. I mean, my Pokeblocks are pretty good, but my food is kinda so-so." She giggled. "Guess I'll get used to the sandwich thing, too."

They ate the rest of their lunch in relative silence, the only sound coming from the rustling blades of grass underneath them. Drew, having only had one sandwich, finished at about the same time as May, who was by far a faster eater. He rummaged in his backpack again and retrieved a large purple notebook, which he began to flip through contemplatively. May scooted next to him curiously and peered over his shoulder. "What's that?" She asked.

He clapped it shut. "None of your Combeeswax."

"Dreeeew…"

"You can't just whine at me and magically get what you want."

"Dreeeeeeeeeeeeeew…"

He sighed. "Fine." He opened it up to a random page and tapped it lightly. It was a drawing of Roserade performing what looked to be Petal Dance. May was a little taken aback. It was an exceptionally good picture. "I use this to plan my appeals," he explained. "Sometimes I don't have a totally clear picture in my head of what I want them to look like, so I sketch it out to have something solid to look at. I figured I might as well look through some of my past ideas and see if anything popped out at me that we could use in Mica City."

"Wow," she said, leaning over a bit further to get a closer look at some of the detail. "You're actually a really good artist. Like, really really good."

Drew flicked his hair and smirked. "One day you'll stop being surprised by all my talents.." He eyes glanced to the right for a half-second and he suddenly became very aware of how close they were to each other. Her hair held a faint strawberry scent. He shifted uncomfortably away from her, but she was still enamored with the picture and didn't seem to notice. Quickly and with an uncharacteristic lack of grace, he stood and replaced the notebook in his backpack, turning away from her. "Anyway, I think that's a long enough break. We should get going if we want to get to Mica before dark."

"Oh. Um, okay," May replied. She was clearly somewhat confused by the sudden reaction, but she apparently just shrugged it off for she got up, dusted herself off and slung her pack onto her back, then started off down the path. Drew was at her side, only half-listening as she talked incessantly, his mind preoccupied with a sudden craving for strawberries.

* * *

Night had fallen when the pair reached Mica City. It was a modest little place. Most of the houses were small and unremarkable, dirt paths were common, and the charm of Gateon Port was completely absent. There were no people around, all having retired to their homes, which were mostly dark with lights only shining through a window on occasion. Drew shook his head in wonderment as they made their way through the town. "_This _is the best place they could think of to kick off the Cup?"

"Oh, it's not so bad," May replied. "It's, you know, quaint. Sometimes the nicest places are the ones that don't look it."

"No, Azalea was quaint. This is more like second-rate."

She gave him a sideways look and a little smile. "Not every city in the world can be LaRousse."

"Fair enough. As long as they have indoor plumbing, I guess." He returned the smile and then continued. "We can go to the Contest Hall to get our new Contest Passes." He pointed at it, probably the most superfluous gesture he'd made in a long while. The brand-new Contest Hall stuck out like a Wailord in a small pond. It was massive. Half of the city could have fit inside, likely more with liberal use of a crowbar. It was in pristine condition, and would probably sparkle when daylight came again for how clean it was. It was almost entirely glass, and there were big block letters on the outside proudly spelling out "MICA CITY CONTEST HALL," presumably to ensure that no one mistook it for a Day-Care Center. The higher-ups of the Orre region were going all-out in their attempt to impress people, and they were doing a pretty respectable job of it.

The sliding glass doors parted when May and Drew approached. The only person inside was a tired-looking man sitting behind a desk, flipping through channels on a nearby TV. He didn't acknowledge them until Drew, with some irritance, rang the little bell located on the desk, at which point he turned and eyed them speculatively.

"You'll be wantin' yer contest passes, I take it?"

"What gave us away?" Drew asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. He had a tendency to become somewhat short of patience after a long day of traveling.

The man narrowed his eyes even further, then directed his attention to an archaic computer sitting behind the desk, speaking as his fingers lightly passed over the keys. "I been here all day, kid, takin' down information for more overexcited Contesters or whatever you're called than I care to count, so no need to get snippy. Names?"

"Drew Hayden and-" He was cut off.

"May Maple! Nice to meet you!"

He glanced up with apparent recognition. "The whiz kids? Folks around here been wonderin' if you were gonna show. Mighty popular, you are. You're supposed to be, like, star-crossed lovers or some such?"

If looks could kill, the unfortunate man behind the counter would have died a thousand gruesome deaths at that moment, but with great effort Drew was able to keep his voice even. "No. You must be thinking of some other team." He was vaguely aware of May at his side, looking positively mortified.

The man shrugged, evidently too tired either to notice or care about Drew's pointed scowl. "Whatever. Gonna have to get a new picture, though. This one I got here in the database looks pretty old. How long you been at this contest thing?"

Drew opened his mouth to make another quip, but May was apparently trying to defuse the situation, because she beat him to the bunch. "Oh, about six years now," she said in her most polite voice, then smiled modestly. "Um, most people know us pretty well in the other regions, so they've never made us take new pictures."

"Gotcha. You want a picture together or individuals?"

"Individuals," Drew said as quickly as he could, before May could open her mouth again. He knew if she was given half a chance, she'd do everything in her power to stage a massive group picture, Pokemon included. That was much more than he wanted to deal with tonight.

"Alrighty. Stand over there, please. Ladies first, I guess."

* * *

"What do you mean there's only one room left?"

Drew and May had gone straight to Mica City's sole hotel after receiving their new contest passes and been greeted with bad news by the receptionist. Drew wasn't taking it particularly well.

"I'm very sorry, sir, but as I said, we miscalculated the number of Coordinators who'd be participating in this first contest and-"

"Miscalculated? You built a Contest Hall the size of a Groudon on steroids and didn't think to account for more people needing places to stay?"

"What's the matter, Drew? Worried you can't control yourself if we're in the same room?" May mocked, recalling their conversation from yesterday. Drew turned and glared at her, and she raised her hands up apologetically. "Er, not the time for that. Got it. But look, it's not a big deal. We'll save some money, if nothing else."

"Speaking of which, I'd be happy to offer you a free night to make up for the inconvenience," the receptionist said, "and a coupon for some room service discounts as well. I have a feeling we'll be giving out quite a few of those over the next few nights" She smiled slightly, either supremely confident in her customer service skills or miserably misreading the situation.

The customer service skills prevailed, as it turned out. Drew nodded with some reluctance and made the arrangements. Five minutes and a short elevator trip later, they reached their room, which mercifully featured two beds. May didn't even want to think about Drew's reaction had there been only one.

"The room service here had better be really good," Drew grumbled as he dropped his pack on one of the beds and yawned. "Ugh. I didn't realize how tired I am."

"Maybe you wouldn't be if we'd slept a little later this morning," May replied jokingly, in the process of setting up her own bed. Drew gave her another look, but she just grinned this time, unfazed. "Still not the time? Man, tough crowd tonight…"

She was surprised when Drew actually chuckled. "You know what? Fine, you win. We can sleep in a little bit tomorrow."

She whipped her head around to gawk at him. "What?"

"I said we can sleep in a little bit tomorrow. We've got a long journey ahead of us, right? We can't always do things according to just my schedule."

"Wow. Um, I was kind of just kidding."

"Oh, what happened to 'I need my beauty sleep, grasshead!'?" Drew's impersonation of her was a ridiculously shrill voice approaching a pitch that she wouldn't have even thought him capable of reaching.

It was her turn to glare at him. "I don't sound like that. That was more of a Harley voice."

His expression turned deadly serious. "That's the worst thing you've ever said to me…"

They looked at each other for several seconds before their expressions began to crack and they started to laugh, softly at first, and then harder and harder. Before they knew it, they couldn't stop. And in the midst of everything, May realized it was the first time she'd ever heard Drew laugh a real, genuine laugh. She'd heard him chuckle, sure, and snickering was well within his ability, but never an actual, fun laugh.

She peered through half-open eyes at him on the other side of the room. He was slightly doubled over, clutching at his stomach. She liked this Drew. The normal Drew had become pleasant enough over the years, but this was better. Hopefully she could pull this side of him out a little more often.

Eventually their laughter subsided, and May wiped away a few tears from her eyes before grabbing her pajamas out of her pack and walking into the bathroom to change. When she walked out, still smiling a little, Drew was already in bed, apparently having readied himself in the meantime. She shut off the light and climbed into bed before speaking again. "See? Rooming with me isn't so bad."

She heard him sigh from the other side of the room. "It's not that I thought it was gonna be _bad._ It's just new for me. You were with Ash and Brock and your brother for a long time, you know? I've never traveled with anyone before now. I'm just not used to it. I'm used to being by myself."

May took a moment and then responded. "Huh. That's… Kinda sad."

There was that low chuckle again. "No, I don't mean it like I'm lonely. Just, you know, even my sisters and I don't spend a lot of time together. I've gotta get accustomed to the whole 'companion' thing."

May heard him roll over in his bed, so she assumed the conversation was over. But, minutes later, she couldn't resist asking one more question. "Drew?"

"Hm?"

"Why don't you tell me about your family or something? I don't… know anything about you, really."

She didn't get a response for a long while, and was beginning to think she wasn't going to get one at all when finally he spoke. "That's a conversation for another night, I think."

"I'm gonna hold ya to that, you know."

"I know. Good night, May."

"G'night."

For the second night in a row, May was smiling when she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**AN: **So, good news, I'm not dead.

Yeah, this whole "Take-half-a-year-to-upload-a-new-chapter" thing is why my original plan was to right way more of it before I even published, but without the support I've gotten from y'all that probably wouldn't have happened anyway. There almost definitely will never be this long of a wait between update again.

I don't think this chapter is anywhere near the quality of the first two, and I'm aware nothing has really happened yet, but small conversations like the ones here are important to the kind of relationship I'm trying to portray between the two at the moment, so just bear with me. "Traveling" chapters like this will be almost nonexistent for the rest of the fic, and it's gonna pick up soon.

In the category of really-not-important-things-but-still-something-I-want-to-do, I'm sure some of you astute people have realized that I name my chapters after songs. Or, you know, you read my profile. Anyway, I've been meaning to name the song specifically in the chapter so people can look them up if they're interested. They don't really have anything to do with the chapters except that the titles are somewhat relevant to the content, but I like them and sometimes people need new stuff to listen to while reading fanfiction. To that end, here are the songs for the first three chapters:

1: Brave New World by Iron Maiden

2\. White Pearl, Black Oceans... by Sonata Arctica

3\. Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men

Last thing I want to address: a couple of people have messaged me asking about this, so I thought I'd clear it up. I did not create the Orre region. It's the setting of two video games in the series, but in hindsight it was probably dumb of me to assume that everyone reading a story about characters from the anime would know that. I've expanded it for the purposes of the story, as it's pretty bare, and I'm probably taking a few liberties, but Orre does indeed exist in-universe already.

Hope y'all enjoyed. Out.


	4. A Simple Game of Genius

**AN: **Since I seem to have alienated most of my fanbase with the long update time between chapters 2 and 3, I have decided to change this fic drastically. It will be rewritten as a story in which four high school girls who are also famous singers have an adventure in love with four vampire boys who are also assassins. I expect to be in the top ten percent in the Pokemon category for favorites, follows, and reviews within two weeks when that fic is published. Don't let me down, people.

Also, none of what I just wrote is true or meant to be taken seriously in any way. Aren't I funny?

Title Song: A Simple Game of Genius by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

* * *

It was here. The day of the Mica City Contest, the first step in the inaugural Orre Ribbon Cup, was finally here, and May was suddenly extremely aware of the fact that in just a few short minutes, she was going to have to step onstage and perform with Drew. Somehow that hadn't sunk in until this exact moment, as they stood side-by-side in the locker room at the Contest Hall, watching the kickoff ceremony on the monitor.

They had spent the last two days training diligently, and to May's astonishment there had been very little arguing between them when deciding on which Pokemon to use and what kind of appeal they should plan. Drew had been quick to point out that despite the allegedly large number of entrants, this first contest was unlikely to be particularly competitive.

"Think about it," he had said with a casual flick of his hair. "We haven't run into Harley, so he and Solidad aren't here. That psycho could find us on a Where's Waldo? page. And I asked around, those two girls Dawn and Zoey aren't either. Most of the heavy-hitters are probably gonna be sitting this one out, and maybe a couple more to begin with."

She had looked at him curiously. "Why would they do that?"

"To scope out the competition. They'll take it easy, y'know? They'll find a nice, cushy hotel room and watch the opening Contests from the comfort of their beds. Try to see if any of the common faces have caught new Pokemon or otherwise switched up their act, or if there's any new blood worth looking out for. And also, what's the most important part of being a Coordinator?"

"Standing out," she said immediately. It was an obvious answer that any Coordinator inherently knew.

"Right. So they try to zero in on any kind of trend or common ground with the kinds of appeals that people are using, and they structure their own to be different. I've even seen some people make spreadsheets to keep track of all of that stuff. It can get pretty scientific."

"Wow," May breathed. "I had no idea people put so much effort into preparing for Contests besides just training their Pokemon."

Drew had looked with her with a little smirk. "Your whole improvisation strategy doesn't work for anyone but you, really. I'd hesitate to call that a skill, but it does seem to do wonders for you."

Ignoring the insult, she asked, "Well, why aren't we doing something like that, then?"

He shrugged. "I have a different philosophy. Hit them hard and fast. Pick up a couple of quick ribbons so some of the pressure's off. Plus, it's just as easy to get out in front of trends as it is to combat them once they're there. Coordinating's a pretty simple thing when you get right down to it." Here he paused to take a sip of water from his canteen. Even in the well-shaded area they had found to practice, the Orre sun was harsh. "Anyway, my point with all of this is to say that we might want to hold back a little bit at the beginning. This Cup is gonna be tough enough without our biggest rivals having a head start on information."

May nodded and then laughed nervously. "You really do put a lot of thought into this, huh? Makes me feel sorta lazy, just going from Contest to Contest without a real plan."

"It'd get boring if everybody did the same thing, anyway," he said with a chuckle. "Anyway, let's go ahead and figure out who we wanna use."

There was certainly a styles clash between them that May was only just beginning to truly realize. They had settled into a training regimen that suited both of them with relative ease, but the actual act of putting an appeal together was a different beast. May was excitable and brought a palpable energy to her appeals, always ready with an encouraging word to her Pokemon when they were having difficulty with a tricky portion of their role. She was emotive and prone to gradual downswings in mood when they hit a rough patch. Drew lay on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. He was calm and collected, rarely changing expression at all when in the act of training. He was strict with his Pokemon but fair, seemingly knowing exactly how far he needed to push them to bring the best out of them, and was usually only complimentary when the day of training was over. The only thing they had in common as far as Coordinating was concerned was the complete and absolute faith they had in their Pokemon teams. In May's opinion, that was the most important aspect anyway.

Unfortunately, that thought was doing little to comfort her now.

Orre's governor was currently onstage, in the midst of a long-winded but spirited speech thanking everyone who had contributed to make the Orre Ribbon Cup a possibility, most of whom he mentioned by name. It was a lengthy list. May was only half-paying attention. Thoughts of apprehension were running through her mind unbidden. _What if our timing's off? What if we get in each other's way up there and start yelling different commands at the same time? What if I forget what I'm supposed to do in the heat of the moment and I have to improvise and I throw Drew off his game? _And so on. She tugged on the bandana around her neck absentmindedly, a nervous tick she had picked up at some time or another.

Her breathing must have quickened or something, because Drew gave her a sideways glance. "You're not freaking out on me now, are you?"

She gave him a thoroughly unconvincing shake of the head and smile.

He sighed. "Just relax. We've got this. You'll be fine as soon as you step onstage."

"Aren't you even a little bit nervous?"

"No. We've got this," he repeated. His eyes returned to the monitor, clearly signifying that there was nothing else that needed to be said.

It took a moment for his words to register in her mind, but once they did, she realized that in Drew-speak, he meant that he had confidence in her. She smiled to herself, and the apprehensive thoughts in her head were replaced with those of determination. It had taken a long time before Drew had recognized her as talented, and there was no way she was going to let all that hard work be for naught. She was going to prove to him, to herself, and to everyone that they were a team of equals.

"I guess it's about time I turned this over to the experts," the Governor was saying, "so without further ado, let me introduce to you the voice of the Orre Ribbon Cup, Miss Marcia DeVille!"

There was a healthy round of applause as a pretty woman with dark red hair strode onstage, dressed in a plain but elegant blue dress with a large grin on her face. May recognized her as one of the lead reporters at ONBS, Orre's leading news station. She had seen one of her broadcasts the previous night while idly flipping through channels in the hotel room.

"Thank you, Mr. Governor, sir, and thank you all so much for being here! Like the man said, I'll be your emcee for the duration of the Cup. I'm gonna try my best to cast these Contests, but we've got so much talent here in Orre that I can't make any promises!"

She paused as the crowd started to cheer again, then continued. "Let me tell you, each and every one of you is a part of history today. Years from now, mark my words, Orre is going to be the premier destination for Coordinators all over the world, and when that happens, you're going to be able to tell everyone you know that you were here for the beginning of it all!"

More cheering. Marcia was clearly enjoying herself, looking even more at home in front of screaming fans than in the news studio. "Alright, now, let's meet the judges, shall we? We don't have the luxury of bringing in the resident Nurse Joy of each town to act as guest judge every Contest, so you all better get used to these guys!" There was a scattering of laughter from the audience, and she went on. "First up, from Pyrite Town, someone you all know and love. He's big, he's tough, and he's my father, give it up for Mr. Duking DeVille!"

A spotlight illuminated the first of the judge's podiums on the mostly-darkened stage, and Duking gave a polite wave, dressed sharply in a black suit and a dapper hat, and sporting a freshly-combed mustache. The podium was clearly too small for him, which detracted somewhat from the spectacle they were trying to make of the introduction process, but he took it all in stride, looking not at all uncomfortable.

"Is that the same Duking you said found those Poke Spot things, Drew?" May asked.

"Yeah, that's him."

"He doesn't look like what I imagined."

"Second, from Phenac City…" Marcia was back on the mic. "A Pokemon expert if there ever was one and the ever-popular leader of Phenac's own Pre-Gym, let's hear it for Justy!"

A second spotlight came down on the podium next to Duking's, revealing a young man with purple hair who stood and bowed quickly to the thunderous applause being directed at him. He was absolutely dwarfed by the other man, which made for quite a comical sight.

"Jeez," Drew said, a hint of a smile appearing on his face. "Swap their positions on the podiums and they'd look like a human representation of the number ten."

May glanced at him, then back at the screen and snorted quietly as the visual took shape in her mind, but then another thought occurred to her. "Do they have gyms here, too? Ash never mentioned anything about a League in Orre while we were traveling together."

"I think just the one. Now that you mention it, though, I might have read somewhere that they're looking to set up a League eventually. Maybe he's their test, so to speak. That could be why it's called a Pre-Gym."

"I guess that would makes sense." She turned back to the monitor as Marcia began introducing the third judge.

"And finally, a _very _special guest. All the way from Dewford Town in Hoenn, let's all give a huge Orre welcome to Mr. Boyd Connors!"

"Oh, hell. Boyd Connors is here? They really are pulling out all the stops…"

May looked at Drew, the source of the muttering, in confusion. "Who's that?"

Drew turned to her in surprise. "You've never heard of him?" At her shaking head, he explained. "He's one of the original creators of Pokemon Contests. He was there at the very beginning. If I remember correctly, it was his idea to include the Battle Round in the first place. He thought it was important that Pokemon show grace under pressure as well as in the controlled situation of the Appeals Round."

He focused his eyes back on the screen, where a refined-looking grey-haired man was standing, nodding to the crowd that was giving him the huge Orre welcome Marcia had asked for. He was dressed immaculately in a carefully-tailored white suit, looking for all the world like he'd been in this very position thousands of times, which, of course, he had.

May said, "How come he's never been at any of the Contests we've been in before?"

"He's semi-retired. Enjoying the quiet life. Either he's really intrigued by what Orre's doing here or they made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Or both." Drew shook his head in wonderment. "The man's a legend. Supposedly he's extremely hard to impress, too. Apparently he's only given something like five or six perfect scores ever."

"Well, I would definitely expect he's hard to impress if he's been judging Contests since they started!" May replied. "That's fine, we're just gonna have to show him something that he can't helped but be amazed by, right?" She gave Drew a bright smile, all doubts about the Contest apparently gone.

Drew stared at her for a second, then flicked his hair and smirked. "Right. We'll be perfect score number seven."

"Let's get this show on the road!" This from Marcia again. "Kicking off the Mica City Contest is a pair of Coordinators from right here in Orre…"

* * *

May took a deep breath, trying to alleviate the last little pre-show jitters that were lingering inside her. They were up next.

Drew was already waiting on the other end of the stage, out of sight of the audience, for his introduction. The pair had arranged before the Contest for him to be called up first as part of their appeal plan. She knew it was important that it happen this way for the appeal to have its full effect, but it would have been nice to have him standing next to her for some moral support at the moment. Then again, her partner had a definite lack of warm fuzzies in him, so it was possible he would just put her even more on edge.

Lost in her own thoughts, she jumped a bit when the doors in front of her opened and the last team of Coordinators to perform brushed past her on their way back to the locker room. She hadn't been paying attention to how they had done, but they didn't looked particularly pleased with themselves. She jammed a foot in the door and kept it open a crack so she could peek out and wait for her cue. It wouldn't be long now.

"And now, the duo I know many of you have been waiting for all day!" Marcia had lost absolutely no enthusiasm over the course of the day and, if anything, her smile had only widened. "Entrant Team number fourteen, two of the most beloved Coordinators in the entire world! First, hailing from LaRousse City, make some noise for Drew Hayden!"

May watched as Drew smoothly sauntered onto the stage, soaking up the (predominantly high-pitched) cheers from the crowd. His fame did indeed reach all the way to Orre. He gave a light flick of his hair, drawing some more squeals from the female portion of his fanbase, and brought out a Poke Ball from his belt.

"Alright, Absol, let's do this!" He cried, and flung the Poke Ball into the air, releasing the Disaster Pokemon in all his brooding glory onto the middle of the Contest stage. May slid through the doors and waited at the foot of the stage for Marcia to introduce her, which she began to do as soon as Absol's four hooves hit the floor.

"His partner, from Petalburg City, let's hear it for May Maple!"

Upon hearing her name announced, the nerves evaporated completely. She'd done this a hundred times before, after all. She jogged onstage eagerly as the audience, to her surprise, greeted her with the same warmth they had shown to Drew. She allowed herself a small wave in their direction before tossing her own Poke Ball into the air with her signature call. "Glaceon, take the stage!"

The majestic Ice-type Eeveelution landed gracefully on the stage opposite Absol, looking as though he was trying to control his joy at being able to compete again. The crowd gave another cheer at the appearance of one of May's most recognizable Pokemon.

"Now, Glaceon, just like we talked about. Ice Beam, low power!"

Glaceon nodded slightly and, after taking a moment to charge, shot its Ice Beam attack straight at Absol, who looked to be making no attempt to get out of the way, and Drew was giving no such order. Then, just a second before the attack connected, Absol reared up high on its hind legs, taking the full brunt of the shot squarely in the chest.

The crowd let out a collective gasp, greatly confused by the odd sight before them, and Marcia scrambled to try and explain with her commentary. "Uh… May's Glaceon begins the appeal with an Ice Beam straight to the heart of her partner's Absol… Has the long rivalry between these two already boiled over?"

May felt the corners of her mouth turn up in a poorly concealed, satisfied smile, and she could just make out Drew mirroring the expression on the opposite end of the stage. "Keep going, Glaceon!" She shouted.

Absol stood ramrod straight, expressionless, as Glaceon pressed the attack. A sheet of ice was noticeably spreading across his body, long since rooting him to the spot, but still he did not even react.

Out of the corner of her eye, May saw Marcia throw up her hands in bewilderment. "I give up, folks!" The emcee said, shaking her head. "I have no idea what's going on here."

By this time, a solid block of ice had formed around Absol at center stage. He was still very visible inside, eyes locked straight forward, no part of his body having moved since the Ice Beam first hit.

Then, suddenly, he vanished.

"Now, Absol!" This from Drew. "Night Slash!"

Seemingly from nowhere, Absol appeared again, claws glowing purple as he charged at the block of ice in his path. With a low grunt of his own name, he began slicing at it savagely from every direction, with movements far too quick for anyone's eyes to reliably follow.

The audience was plainly disoriented, but also quite excited at Absol's sudden reemergence. After a time, Marcia stepped forward, a look of epiphany on her face. "I see!" She yelled into the mic. "When Glaceon was released, Absol took advantage of all our eyes being directed elsewhere and made a Substitute of himself, then disappeared with Feint Attack! All this time, he's just been lying in wait for the right moment! What an amazing bait-and-switch!"

There was a great murmur of awe emanating from the crowd at the Contest Hall as Marcia's explanation sunk in. Meanwhile, Absol's creation was slowly but surely beginning to take shape in front of them.

May waited until the sculpture was nearing completion, then shouted her final command of the appeal to her Pokemon. "Glaceon, Mirror Coat!"

Glaceon leapt to the front of the sculpture and took on a proud pose as his body began to glow, Absol's slashes still carrying on around him, until eventually, the Mirror Coat was finished. Glaceon's whole body was now covered in the strange substance provided by the move. Right on cue, Absol gave the ice a final swipe and then retreated out of view to give his partner Pokemon full run of the stage.

When the reflective mirror coat mixed with the sunlight streaming in from the glass ceiling of the Contest Hall and illuminated the tiny ice crystals left hanging in the air by Absol's handiwork, it culminated in a truly breathtaking sight. Glaceon stood proudly shimmering in front of the completed ice sculpture: a slightly crude but very respectable imitation of a thornless rose, which, surprisingly, had been May's idea.

The Mirror Coat faded and Glaceon stepped forward to the front of the stage, followed shortly by Absol. May and Drew quickly followed, standing behind their respective Pokemon, and took a short bow as the crowd gave them a deafening round of applause.

"Wow! Just… Wow!" A less professional entertainer might have been squealing with glee at what just happened, but Marcia, to her credit, was keeping herself mostly in control. "I'm not even gonna try to find the words to describe what we just saw. Let's just throw it straight to the experts, shall we? Duking!"

The big man nodded slowly. "Clever little trick with the Substitute. Definitely made a pretty picture at the end. Gotta say, though, there was a lot of waiting around. The Pokemon were just kinda taking turns. Nice job, but it just fell short of being great."

A yellow 7.8 flashed onto the screen of his podium. May's eyes widened a bit at the relatively low score, and she gave a sideways look to Drew, who still looked mostly impassive.

Justy, after a few seconds' thought, spoke next. "I agree with Duking completely. It kind of felt like two individual Pokemon making two individual appeals at times. Great execution and a beautiful effect, but we're looking for cohesion above all else."

His podium flashed 7.5 and May's eyes widened further. A hush fell over the crowd as they awaited the score from the last judge, the legendary Boyd Connors.

His eyes were shut, and he was sitting back in his chair, fist raised underneath his chin in deep contemplation. He almost gave the appearance that he was dozing. But then, just as Marcia hesitantly raised the microphone to her lips to speak to him, he sat forward. "I have nothing to add," he said.

His score was a six, and May lost her temper.

"A SIX?" She shouted indignantly, and took a step in the judges' direction with a dangerous look in her eyes, but she made it no further before Drew forcibly restrained her.

"Are you insane?" He hissed into her ear, then turned towards the judges and nodded. "Thank you for your advice, sirs. We will take your words into consideration." He turned swiftly on his heel, dragging an incensed May back in the direction of the locker room as a half-embarrassed, half-amused Marcia began introducing the next team.

As soon as they pushed through the doors, her tirade began. "He gave us a six for that? Come on! That was beautiful! We worked really hard on that and it turned out great! I mean, I can at least _kind of _see where the other two were coming from but a six is just ridiculous!"

Drew made a placating motion with his hands. "May, cool it. I told you Connors was hard to impress."

"He didn't even give us any pointers to help us out, though!"

"The other judges did it for him. And he's not obligated to give advice anyway." He sighed. "Look, there's no point worrying about it now. We need to focus on the Battle Round."

She looked at him doubtfully. "You think we made it? Our score barely got into the twenties and there's a lot of teams here."

He nodded. "Sure. There were only a couple of teams before us that had scores above twenty, too, and they're taking eight into the Battle Round. There's barely enough left to knock us out even if all of them do better, and let's face it, that's not gonna happen. It's all statistics."

May took a deep breath. "Okay, okay, grasshead, you're right. This ribbon's still all ours." She shook her head ruefully. "I just can't believe that jerk gave us a six!"

* * *

Drew would soon be proven right. They qualified for the Battle Round with the third-highest score and proceeded to steamroll their first two matches. Per the rules of the Mica City Contest, the same two Pokemon were to be used in both stages. As it turned out, this was posing absolutely no problem, as Absol and Glaceon actually worked very well together. Both were light on their feet while giving up very little in the way of raw power, and both were prideful Pokemon who seemed to be determined not to be seen as the weak link. May and Drew's points barely dipped at all in the quarter- and semifinals.

The other semifinal match was taking place on the monitor, and it was also fairly one-sided. The first-place qualifiers from the Appeal Round were proving to be no slouches at battling, either. They were using a well-trained team of a Hitmontop and Girafarig, and Drew gave an almost imperceptible grimace when he saw this. It did not go unnoticed by May. "Something the matter?"

"That Hitmontop could be a bit of an issue. He's got type advantage over both our Pokemon."

"Oh, so what?" She replied. "Type advantages don't matter all that much."

He turned to her, the grimace starting to morph into a slight smirk. "You spent way too much time with Ash."

"Hey, you can't argue with success. Plus, Absol has an advantage over Girafarig. If Glaceon and I can keep Hitmontop busy for long enough, you can focus on that. Maybe we can get a big enough point lead that it won't even matter."

Drew nodded. "Works for me. We only have to hold out for five minutes."

"And who knows? Maybe they won't even win this-" She was cut off as Hitmontop delivered a vicious kick to the face of the opposing Torkoal onscreen, knocking it out. She giggled and shrugged. "Well, so much for that."

The two spent another few minutes talking strategy while their opponents received a short break to recover before the final battle. Soon, though, they were all onstage and ready to fight. Drew and May's opponents had been introduced as Justin and Gabriel from Mauville City, and from the look of them, they were a couple years younger and quite determined to make a swift name for themselves by taking down some of the favorites in the Cup.

The two duos released their Pokemon and the battle commenced.

"Glaceon, use Hail!" May shouted instantly. This was part of the strategy she and Drew had concocted, just to give their opposition one additional thing to worry about. At her command, Glaceon cried out his name and summoned some thick clouds above the battlefield, and small bits of hail began to fall onto the stage. Absol would be affected, too, but Drew was confident in his ability to withstand it better than their opponents. Almost immediately, points began to decrease for both sides. They were fractional amounts, but May and Drew's were certainly falling slower and every little bit counted.

Hitmontop and Girafarig were visibly annoyed by the hail, but they still looked very battle-ready. "Triple Kick, Hitmontop! Get 'em both if you can!" Justin called. Hitmontop quickly acquiesced, spinning on his head and speeding off towards Absol.

_He's fast, _Drew thought. "Dodge that, Absol!"

Absol nimbly leapt out of the way, and Hitmontop changed course for Glaceon.

"You too, Glaceon!" Yelled May. But Glaceon did not move. "Glaceon? What's-" May looked over to the other side of the stage and saw that Girafarig's eyes were glowing blue. _Oh, no, Glaceon's caught in Confusion!_

With no time to react, Hitmontop nailed Glaceon with all three kicks, the super effective attack sending the Ice-type flying. May and Drew's points took the first significant dip of the battle.

"Absol, you gotta deal with that! Feint Attack!"

The Disaster Pokemon faded into darkness, and Gabriel tried to react. "Girafarig, be careful, he's still around here somewhere and he's coming for you!"

He was too late. Absol appeared again, to Girafarig's side, and struck a hard blow with his claws, sliding gracefully to the other side afterwards and beginning to ready himself for another attack.

"Cut him off, Hitmontop! Rolling Kick!"

"Glaceon, Ice Beam!"

Glaceon had recovered, and while the Ice Beam missed, when combined with the hail it was enough to throw Hitmontop off track. Absol used the distraction to hit Girafarig again, catapulting May and Drew back into the lead on points.

"Come on, Hitmontop, get there! Agility!"

"You too, Girafarig, Agility!"

Girafarig pulled itself back to a standing position and took off running, just managing to stay out of Absol's range with his increased speed. Meanwhile, Glaceon was continuing to fire Ice Beam attacks at Hitmontop, but his own speed was proving to be too much to control. Neither Drew nor May realized that their opponents were setting up for an ambush until it was too late, and when Girafarig dodged one last swipe from Absol, Hitmontop suddenly popped up as if from nowhere and caught him with a wicked kick to the face reminiscent of the one that had taken down the Torkoal in the previous battle. Their teamwork was impeccable.

Absol didn't stop moving until he hit the wall. Hitmontop could've given any Hitmonlee in the world a run for its money in a pure kicking competition. When the dust cleared, though, Absol could be seen shakily dragging his body back to his feet.

"Finish it off, Hitmontop! Focus Energy and then Triple Kick!"

The Focus Energy attack engulfed Hitmontop in a crimson aura, and he started spinning for Absol with animalistic ferocity. Drew and May gasped almost in stereo. Glaceon was in no position to intercept and Drew could see that Absol didn't have the energy to get out of the way. But maybe… "Absol, Double Team!"

It was a good idea, and though it didn't look like it at first, it probably saved the match. Absol was able to muster two copies of himself, and Hitmontop diverted his attention from the true target and dispatched the clones with two swift kicks. The third was coming right at Absol.

"Barrier!"

Drew glanced at May in surprise. He didn't even know Glaceon could learn Barrier. Sure enough, though, Absol was presently surrounded by a ball of pure blue light, and Hitmontop's kick bounced off as though it was a Rattata against a Snorlax. The sheer force of the attack sent him back the other direction, and Gabriel was left to try and cover for his partner. He couldn't do anything to Absol, as the Dark-type was immune to all its Psychic-type attacks, but he could hit Glaceon. "Psychic attack on Glaceon, Girafarig!"

"I don't think so! Sucker Punch, Absol!"

Absol reached far down inside himself and pulled out his last remaining bit of strength, moving across the stage at blinding speed and striking Girafarig with a vicious impact. Drew wasn't done. "Finish with Night Slash!"

"Helping Hand, Glaceon!" May shouted out. "We've gotta make this count!"

At his trainer's order, Glaceon released a bolt of blue lightning towards its partner, which reached him just in time to deliver the Night Slash attack, knocking Girafarig across the battlefield.

"Close Combat!"

"Oh no!" May cried. Before she could do anything to stop it, Hitmontop had sped across the stage and laid in with a half-dozen kicks to Absol, who could do nothing but take it as he, too, was sent flying.

She risked a brief glance at the screen displaying the points, but it was still trying to catch up and thus was no help. She knew she had to do something, and something drastic. Drastic and fast. An idea hit her. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do, or there was no way they could win. "Glaceon, Last Resort!"

While the move would have been far stronger had Glaceon used more attacks throughout the battle, May was hoping fervently that the situation was extreme enough that it would still have some power behind it.

Glaceon leapt forward and, before trainer or Pokemon could respond, brought his tail crashing down onto Hitmontop. There was enough of an angle on the attack that Hitmontop was knocked away, and at first it looked as though the desperation move had been enough to keep him down. To her horror, though, Hitmontop managed to make it back to his feet, seemingly having plenty of fight still left in him.

Absol and Girafarig were unconscious. This was a one-on-one battle now, and truth be told, May was concerned. Hitmontop seemed to have Glaceon outmatched in every way, and with Drew on the sidelines unable to do anything but watch, she couldn't see how she could possibly-

The buzzer sounded.

May looked up at the scoreboard in shock. She had no idea they were so low on time. Alas, the battle was over, and the shock soon turned to elation as she saw that she and Drew had the most points.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the winners of the very first Orre Pokemon Contest in Mica City, May Maple and Drew Hayden!" May realized with a start that Marcia was still onstage and had likely been speaking for the entirety of the battle. She hadn't even heard her.

"We did it!" She squealed, jumping up and down in unbridled excitement. Drew was standing next to her, allowing himself just a little happy smile as he recalled Absol, and before she even had time to think about what she was doing, she threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

There were a great many thoughts running through Drew's mind as this was happening, though ultimately all of them fell into one of two categories: "Why Is She Doing This?" and "What Should I Do?" He was given no chance to actually react, though, because as soon as the hug had started, it was over, May running over to embrace her exhausted Pokemon apparently without realizing what she had done.

Drew stared at her for a moment, perplexed and with a slightly reddening face, but eventually he just looked down and shook his head fondly. He could tease her about it later. For now, he settled for giving the raucous crowd a hair flick and meeting her in the middle of the stage as they were presented with the ribbons they had earned.

One down. Four to go.

* * *

**AN: **Whew. Longest chapter yet. Before I wrote this, I was expecting that the Appeal Rounds were going to be my biggest challenges, but I think I was wrong. Double Battles are tough, man. I hope everything turned out coherent and, well, good. I don't think my strength is going to lie in the actual Contests going forward, but maybe I'm being too hard on myself.

Please feel free to leave a review and tell me what you liked or didn't like here. I'm really interested to see what y'all have to say about this, because Contests are obviously integral to the story and I don't want them all to suck.

Thanks for reading, as always. 'Til next time, folks.


	5. Comfort Zone

**AN: **I hope these fairly quick updates are at least kind of making up for the long hiatus. Apparently if I had just powered through the writer's block on chapter 3 a little harder, there wouldn't have been a hiatus at all... But maybe I shouldn't tell y'all that.

Title Song: Comfort Zone by Beardfish

* * *

"May, Drew, if I could just have a moment, please!"

"No, thank you!"

It was nighttime, and the pair had just exited the Mica City Contest Hall only to be mobbed by at least a dozen reporters shoving microphones in their faces and asking for quotes, and it was all they could do to try and shove their way through. To a one, every single question the horde had shouted out had been moronic at best and completely outlandish at worst.

"How does it feel being the first team to win a ribbon in Orre?"

"Is there any truth to the rumors that you two are dating?"

"Do you think Boyd Connors has some sort of bias against you?"

"Drew, will you please please please go out with me?" (This might have been from a random fangirl, but it was hard to tell.)

"How do you plan to alter your strategy to account for the advice offered by the panel of judges today?"

At this last, May looked up and happened to catch a glimpse of the one member of the swarm that had actually manage to pose an intelligent query. It was a tall young man not much older than her or Drew, and he didn't look any more pleased to be in this situation than they were. She almost felt like stopping to answer him just out of some combination of pity and respect, but Drew was yanking her by the arm and pulling her past the last few interviewers back onto the near-deserted streets of Mica City before she could actually make the decision.

"What the hell was all that?" Drew spat out when they were finally out of sight of their harassers. "Not even Grand Festival winners get that kind of attention half the time. We just won one ribbon."

"You sound tired," May said absently.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You get like this when you're tired. Even after just a few days it's pretty obvious." She gave him a small smile to reassure him that she was just teasing. "Anyway, they're all just probably having a field day because they want to write some big love story about us. Half of those questions weren't even about the Contest." She wasn't looking at him when she said it, because she was pretty sure she'd start blushing if she did.

To say Drew was taken aback would be an understatement. "That… Actually makes a lot of sense. Who are you and what have you done with May?"

"Shut up, grasshead!" It was far from a clever comeback, but it seemed suitable under the circumstances. Drew simply chuckled and walked on.

They headed to the Pokemon Center and dropped off Absol and Glaceon to be healed. The original plan had been to leave them there overnight, but the attendant assured them that it was a relatively quick job and that they would be ready to go in just a few minutes, so the two Coordinators took a seat in the corner to wait.

May pulled out the newly-won ribbon and gazed at it happily. It was orchid-colored and slightly larger than any of the ones she'd obtained in other regions. "Y'know, I think even after all this time, every time I win a ribbon it still feels like the first time."

"Really? I don't have that feeling. Then again, you haven't won as much as me," Drew replied with a smirk.

May wagged a finger at him good-naturedly. "No, no, no, you don't get to do that tonight. I ban you."

"You ban me?"

"I ban you."

"You can't just ban me."

"I just did. C'mon, that was a team effort and you know it. You're glad you asked me to be your partner right now." She giggled. "Besides, I could tell in your own little way that you were just as excited as I-" She broke off abruptly, and her face visibly paled before it took on a deep red hue. "Oh, Arceus, did I _hug_ you?"

Drew had to suppress a laugh. He had been waiting for this moment. He flung an arm onto the back of the couch he was sitting on and looked off in some other direction nonchalantly. "You did indeed. Although it felt more like you were trying to strangle me. And you were kind of sweaty."

The blush of embarrassment became one of anger, and May sat forward on her chair a fraction of an inch in a menacing manner. "What… did you say?"

Her companion inspected his nails as if he couldn't possibly be less interested in the conversation currently taking place. "I wouldn't recommend you to a friend."

Recently, May had been able to shrug off most of Drew's jabs at her, as she had become astute enough to realize that deep down he didn't mean anything by them. Right now, though, she was so embarrassed that the rational thought section of her mind was not kicking in. And she had most definitely not been sweaty, thank you very much. "If there weren't witnesses around, I'd kill you right now with my bare hands. _Then _you'd see what it was really liked to be strangled."

Fortunately, any attempted murders likely to take place that night were delayed indefinitely when the Pokemon Center's attendant called their names and announced that their Pokemon were all ready. They walked out the doors with Drew chortling quietly to himself and May biting down on her lip to keep herself under control.

* * *

Back at the hotel, May found to her dismay that her embarrassments were not quite over for the day yet. This discovery came quickly on the heels of the realization that Drew slept without a shirt.

Part of the problem was how unexpected it was. The night had been going so smoothly once May had calmed down a bit, and they had walked the rest of the way in a relatively comfortable silence despite the fact that her face was still burning.

In the room, Drew had admitted that he was indeed tired and immediately set about getting ready for bed. May had responded that she was still riding a high from the Contest win and wanted to watch a little T.V. to relax before she tried to sleep.

"Alright, that's fine," Drew had said, and then, with his back towards her, promptly took off his jacket and pulled the undershirt over his head. May had screamed, Drew had jumped a little at the sudden noise, and that was the position in which they now found themselves.

"What," he began irritably, "in the world… Was that?"

She meekly pointed at the now-discarded article of clothing and then said in a voice that could only be described as a squeak, "Why… Why are you… Why… Why?"

He looked down at his own bare chest, and then back at her, arms raised in a shrug of legitimate puzzlement. "What's the big deal? You've seen me without a shirt before. Back on Chrysanthemum Island when I was by that pool, remember? You introduced me to Brianna?"

_Oh, jeez, _she thought. _Chrysanthemum Island is just about the _last _memory I want brought up right now. _

"I've been sleeping like this for the last two nights, too."

"I didn't see you!" She was still squeaking and she couldn't seem to make herself stop. "You were always under the sheets already when I got into bed!"

"It's almost a hundred degrees in this town! Even at night! You really think I'm gonna sleep fully clothed?" Shaking his head, he climbed into bed with every intention of ending the discussion then and there, but then a deliciously devious idea popped into his mind, and he rolled over onto one side to look at his still-shocked traveling partner. "You know, if this makes you uncomfortable," he said slowly, seriously, "you could always just do the same thing."

With another shriek that could have woken the dead, May threw her hands haphazardly around herself, forgetting that she was still very much dressed, and bolted out of the main part of the room and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and leaving Drew alone to laugh heartily at her expense.

When she eventually emerged almost a half hour later, dressed in her pajamas and still looking like she had recently been in a staring contest with a Gyarados, he had composed himself from his mirth enough to broach the subject that had been on his mind since the end of the Contest. He switched off the television as she climbed into her own bed, pointedly facing away from him.

"So, listen, May-"

"I'm not talking to you until you _put a shirt on!_" Her voice had evened out considerably, but it would have been a gross exaggeration to say she sounded completely poised.

"May, you can't even see me right now. It's dark and you're turned the other direction." Of course, he was Drew, and he couldn't resist following up. "I mean, I understand you're still thinking about it, but…"

"Okay, okay, fine! You can talk, just… Stop saying things…"

Not bothering to point out her contradictory words since he knew quite well what she meant, he went on. "Thank you. Now look, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that we aren't going to get through the rest of the Cup the way we did today, right?"

Grateful to have the innocuous subject of Contests to talk about, she rolled onto her back. She wasn't looking at him, but it was hard to have a conversation when one of the parties was looking in the complete opposite direction. "Yeah… That's true. I mean, I still think the judges were kinda harsh, especially that old jerk, but they did have a good point with the whole not-working-as-a-team thing."

"Well, it shouldn't be that big of an issue. We've both done Doubles Appeals before, they were just by ourselves. We just have to get used to working with a partner. The good news is everybody else is gonna have the same learning curve."

"True. It's a good thing we didn't blow off the first couple Contests like you said some Coordinators do."

"Oh, May, you know all of my ideas are good."

"Don't push it."

Drew gave a small chuckle, and May found herself returning it. After a time Drew spoke again. "We need to think about the battles a little more carefully, too. We can't go into them with both of our Pokemon having disadvantages to the same time anymore, especially when it's to a common type like Fighting. We almost got caught in an unwinnable situation like that."

"Oh, you're right! I didn't even think about that…" She trailed off as a sudden thought occurred to her. "Aw, man, that means we probably won't ever be able to use Blaziken and Roserade together. They're both weak to Flying." She sighed. "That's a shame. Our two strongest Pokemon have the same weakness."

"Don't count it out completely. Not every contest is gonna be like this one, you know? Some of them will let us switch our team between the Appeal and Battle Round, and others might let us switch every battle. You're right that it's probably not something we'll be able to depend on too heavily, though. Oh, and one more thing. I think we should spend a little time getting to know each other's Pokemon. What moves they know, what they're best at, that kind of thing."

May was a little surprised at this. "Um… Okay, but where is this coming from? That doesn't seem like something you'd really care about."

"It'll help with strategies. It worked out well with the timing on Glaceon's Barrier today, but I would've liked to have known that we had that in our back pocket. I'm hoping that, sooner or later, we'll settle into a rhythm where we're able to at least somewhat predict what the other's going to do during a battle. We've been rivals for a long time, so we know one another's general styles, but we don't know the Pokemon that well."

"Wow," May said. "You've thought about this a lot, huh? I think there was even a Drew-compliment in there somewhere." She snapped her fingers suddenly. "Ooh, I just remembered I wanted to ask you something, too. We've got about a week before the next Contest, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I was looking at a map of Orre yesterday and I saw that the Pokemon HQ Lab is pretty close by here. We've got time to stop by, right?"

"Sure. We won't be in a rush. Why do you want to go there, though? I never thought of you as someone who'd be interested in Pokemon Labs."

"Is that some subtle way of calling me dumb?" She asked, offended.

"If I wanted to call you dumb, I'd just say it to make sure you didn't misunderstand."

"You're a butt. Anyway, I'm not really a lab person per se, but Dad's friends with the Professor there, so I've met him a few times and I want to say hi. Plus, there might be some rare Pokemon there and that's always fun!"

"Alright, we'll head there first, then."

"Great! Thanks, Drew!" May said happily.

"You don't have to thank me, you know. We're traveling partners, not traveling slave-and-master. You want to go somewhere, we'll go together, and vice versa. Isn't that how the whole thing works?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but saying thanks is the polite thing to do!"

He chuckled again. "In that case, you're welcome."

They fell into another silence, and this time it was May who broke it. "Drew, do you trust me?"

"What kind of a question is that all of a sudden?" Drew responded, clearly thrown.

"Well... My dad told me a long time ago that Pokemon reflect the feelings of their trainers. So, I just thought that if you don't trust me, then your Pokemon won't trust me either, and so they won't trust _my _Pokemon to have their back during a battle, and I just wanted to make sure that wasn't gonna happen." The entire sentence came out in one breath, like she didn't really want to be asking the question but knew she had to. She didn't even know what kind of answer to expect, but it wasn't the kind she got.

"I trust you," he said immediately. "I wouldn't have asked you to be my partner if I didn't. Don't doubt it."

"... You didn't even hesitate."

"Didn't have to. I don't ever do anything I'm not one hundred percent sure of."

"Heh. I guess not. Thanks, Drew, that means a lot."

"Mm."

She felt her eyelids beginning to droop, and the chat seemed to be completed, so she rolled back onto her side and rolled into a little ball, which was how she usually liked to sleep. After a few seconds, though, she opened one eye. "To tell you the truth, I didn't remember Glaceon knew Barrier until the heat of the moment. I taught it to him a few months ago just in case, but I totally forgot."

She couldn't see him, but she knew Drew was rolling his eyes, and he all but confirmed it with his reply. "You're still finding new ways to amaze me… And that's not a 'Drew-compliment,' whatever that even means."

"Watch it. I could still come over there and smack you."

"You could, but apparently all I'd have to do is pull the sheet down a little and-"

"Uggggggggh!" She groaned loudly, throwing her own sheet over her head like a magician trying to make herself disappear. "I had completely forgotten! I hate you, Drew."

She knew she was lying. So did he.

* * *

**AN: **Kind of a necessary evil chapter where nothing really happened, but there's some character development (for Drew especially, I slipped in a sentence for him towards the end that makes up the essence of how I try to write him) so hopefully it's still interesting.

On that note, something I haven't addressed yet: I want to explain my thought process for writing the two main characters, because looking at the chapters I've done so far I can see where some people might construe some things as out of character for them. First off, remember that they're older than they're portrayed in the anime. It's not like they're fully matured by any means, but is there anyone among us who could honestly say they were the same at sixteen as they were at eleven? Secondly, when I'm making decisions as to how my characters act, I make heavy use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which is a personality profile for those who don't know. Looking at the characters over the course of their time on the anime, I think I've been able to estimate fairly accurately what their type would be, and write them accordingly. Drew is easy because the type that I estimated for him is the same as mine, so in many situations I can just ask myself what I would do. May is trickier, but I feel like I've done an okay job. It's not a perfect system, but the nature of fanfiction is such that you can never really write characters "perfectly" as they were in the original subject matter. Nobody's said anything to me yet about either of them acting OOC, but this is a dialogue-heavy chapter that I thought might raise a few eyebrows, so I did just want to mention this.

Also, full disclosure, this chapter's been done for about a week, but because it's fairly short I wanted to have the next chapter done before I published it so I could get them both up at once. Yep, two chapters to read in one day. That should be great news for, like, two of you readers at least. The second one will be up later today.

Anyway, thanks for reading as always, folks.


	6. The Three of Us

**AN: **As promised, the second chapter of the day. Don't say I don't love you folks. Better get comfortable; this one's looong.

Title Song: The Three of Us by Streetlight Manifesto

* * *

The sun was peeking through the curtains of the hotel room in the morning when May was awoken from some distinctly interesting dreams by the sound of the door opening and closing. Groaning quietly, she rolled onto her back and stretched before forcing her eyes open to find Drew looking at her in mild amusement, a bag of what looked like groceries in his hand.

"How did you ever get anywhere on time when you were traveling by yourself?" He asked.

"Munchlax would usually let himself out of his Poke Ball when he got hungry and poke me in the face until I got up and fed him." She yawned and sat up, shaking herself awake. "And since he usually got hungry as soon as the sun came up, it wasn't really a problem." She gestured at the bag. "Go shopping?"

"Yeah, apparently this place has a little farmers' market on Saturdays, so I grabbed some fruit and stuff for the road."

May laughed. "Don't you ever eat any junk food?"

"Healthy body, healthy mind, as they say."

By this point, May had gotten out of bed and walked over to open the curtains and let some more light into the room. "First time I get a chance, I am buying you, like, potato chips and chocolate. You're waaaay too boring."

"Whatever. They also had Poke Snacks there, which they told me is what attracts wild Pokemon to those Poke Spots, so I decided to stock up on some for when we get to one."

"Oh, that was a good idea. I hope that's soon. I'm looking forward to catching some new friends." She stretched again, and then walked over to the closet where she'd hung the several identical traveling outfits she'd brought with her, picking one out arbitrarily. "We're leaving for the lab pretty soon, I'm guessing?"

Drew nodded. "Pretty soon. I figured you'd want to take advantage of that free continental breakfast one more time, though."

Her eyes lit up. "I forgot about that!" Without a moment's more hesitation, she ran to the bathroom and shut the door to change clothes.

Drew shook his head. "Food. Nothing gets her moving quicker…"

* * *

"Welcome back, everyone, to another installment of May's Expeditions!"

May had her fingers out in front of her in the typical camera lens pose, and Drew was staring at her through them as if she was from another planet. "I don't understand what's happening here."

She went on as if she hadn't heard him. "Here we have an obnoxious, stuck-up, rival Coordinator in his natural habitat. You can identify this type of Coordinator by certain distinct features. Note the know-it-all expression, obviously dyed green hair, and ugly teal pants. Now, I know what you're thinking…"

"'Justifiable homicide?'"

"Drew!" She mimed clapping the camera shut. "I can't use any of that footage now!"

"You can't use-" Drew broke off incredulously and threw his hands up in an exaggerated gesture of disbelief. "I give up. My Contest partner is a mental patient. Farewell, sweet Grand Festival dreams."

"I just want to have documentation of this journey!"

"'Documentation?' You're making a fake camera out of your fingers and somehow you're still capable of using a word with five syllables?"

"Aw, c'mon, Drew, it's fun! It's been forever since I've traveled with someone that I could do this kind of thing with."

"What about the voices in your head? One of them must have told you this was perfectly normal behavior."

May sighed. "Oh, you're right, it's goofy. But, you know, when I started traveling, I didn't even have Pokemon with me. I was just in it for the traveling itself. This was my way of making it mean something, I guess. Now that I'm a Coordinator I don't have to do that anymore, huh?" She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, which were still betraying a bit of sadness. And Drew, loath though he was to admit it, didn't like seeing those eyes sad.

He clapped a hand to his forehead in irritation and shook his head heavily. "Alright, fine. Roll the camera."

She brightened immediately. "Really?" She said excitedly.

"Yep. Put 'em up, come on."

"You're not just gonna say a bunch of mean things again?"

"May, do it before I change my mind."

With a grin that now lit up her whole face, she held up her fingers camera-style again. "Action!"

Drew, for all his bravado, was clearly uncomfortable in such a strange situation. "Uh, hi, I'm Drew… and for the record, my hair is all natural…"

* * *

The path from Mica City to the Pokemon HQ Lab was almost entirely wooded, and the sun shining through the canopies above them made for a very pretty and comfortable walk.

Unfortunately, May was no longer enjoying it in the least, because she had been assaulted with a massive stomach ache fairly soon after she had finished with her "episode." Drew wasn't enjoying it much either, because of course he was the one who had to hear about the stomach ache constantly.

"Dreeeew, can't we just take a little break? I'm miserable here!"

"Oh, really?" He shot back sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed. And anyway, you brought this on yourself."

"Are you kidding? This is all your fault!"

"How is it possibly my fault?"

"You said there was no way I could eat a dozen pancakes. I had to prove you wrong!"

"No, what I said was, 'May, you probably shouldn't eat a dozen pancakes, because we've got a pretty long walk ahead of us and you'll feel like crap.' And then you said, 'Don't tell me what to do, grasshead!' And then you ate a dozen pancakes."

"That's not what happened!"

They went on in this fashion for some time, but eventually May got distracted. "Wait. Drew, haven't we seen this tree before?"

"No."

"It looks familiar."

"It probably should, considering we're in a forest."

"I'm telling you, we're going in circles!"

And then they stopped to argue about that. Apparently they could only maintain their level of civility on the journey for so long.

"Look, just give me the map, Drew."

"I'm not giving you the-" He stopped shortly. He cocked his head confusedly, and then began looking around.

"Uh, Drew? Something wrong?"

"Shhh. I thought I heard something in the forest. Listen."

May listened. She cupped a hand to her ear and closed her eyes. Before long, they both heard it. Voices coming from the trees around them.

"- thought you had picked up a scent or something."

"Luxray."

"Well, why are you leading, then?"

"Luxray."

"What'd you call me? Overgrown mutt..."

May turned and stared as a tall young man stumbled out of the brush behind her, followed closely by a Luxray that was looking thoroughly unamused by the situation they were in. They both appeared quite disheveled, like they had been wandering around off the actual path for a while.

"Stupid forest, can't believe I got roped into this... Wait a minute, have we seen this tree before?"

"Luxray."

"... I didn't catch that, are you agreeing or...?

"Luxray."

May glanced at Drew, who just shrugged. She turned back to the unfortunate pair and called out to them. "Uh, hi!"

She had clearly caught them by surprise, or at least had done for the human member of the duo, for it took him a moment to register that someone was speaking to him. When he did, though, he whipped his head around towards the source of the voice, relief evident on his face. "Oh, thank Arceus, more people. I thought we were gonna die out here! We're just not cut out for these hot temperatures, right, Luxray?"

"Luxray." The face of the Pokemon betrayed absolutely no emotion, but it must have more than satisfied its trainer.

"Right! Man, even in the shade, I feel like I'm melting." By this point, he was walking over to them, his mouth shaping into a wide smile, and he hadn't stopped talking yet. "I tell you, I liked the open plains a lot better. I don't have the sense of direction for this. How do people find this Lab, anyway? They put it smack in the middle of nowhere! How can they do their research in the middle of nowhere? It's like they-"

"Excuse me!" This was Drew, cutting in quickly. Evidently May was as much of a talker as he could handle, or perhaps he was just in a foul mood as a result of the arguments. "Take a breath for a minute. The heat's gonna be the least of your problems if you run out of oxygen from talking too much."

"Sorry, sorry." The young man said, still smiling. "I'm just glad to finally find some other travelers here. I was about to go crazy with no one but Luxray here to talk to."

"Might be too late," Drew muttered, only loud enough for May to hear.

She gave him a look that seemed to communicate that she thought he was funny but rude, then knelt down to Luxray's height to inspect him for a few seconds before looking back at the trainer. "Can you understand him?"

"Nope. That's what I was afraid was making me crazy." He laughed good-naturedly. "I can usually work out what he means by reading his face, though. He's pretty expressive with that mug of his."

May glanced again at the expression on the Luxray's face that hadn't morphed even a tiny bit since she saw it the first time and then decided to take his word for it. She stood back up with the intention of introducing herself, but was beaten to the punch.

"Wait a sec, you're that one Coordinator girl. May, right? And you're Drew, uh, Hansen? No, Hayden! Hayden." The young man's smile grew wider, if that was possible, and he regarded the two as if really seeing them for the first time, which, if his overall disposition was any indication, he might well have been. "How about that? My rescuers are famous."

"I don't know what we're supposed to be rescuing you from, but yeah, you got us." Drew walked forward and offered his hand. "Fan of Contests, I guess?"

The stranger took the hand and shook it firmly. "Honestly, not really. But I'm covering the Cup, so if anyone asks, I didn't say that. Have to admit you two put on a pretty cool show yesterday, though. Might make an admirer out of me yet."

"Covering?" May studied him curiously, then sudden recognition hit her. "Oh, I know you! You're one of those reporters from Mica City, aren't you?"

"Guilty. Although I wish I could deny that, too."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You were the only one who sounded like you knew what you were talking about."

He chuckled, and waved a hand in a no-big-deal motion. "I was pretty much faking it, but if I had you fooled I guess I was successful. I'm not nearly that smart."

May had a suspicion he was being overly modest, but he kept going before she could say anything. "Anyway, that's not what I mean. I'm more of an intern than anything. The paper I work for couldn't be bothered to send anyone of actual merit to Orre, so they stuck me on the boat instead. Field training, they called it." He laughed derisively, but there was no real malice behind it. "They just wanted to be rid of me. I think they have enough interest in the Orre Ribbon Cup to have eyes on the ground, but not enough to pay for it."

"Oh, so you're not from Orre?" May asked.

"No, that's a slight Sinnoh accent he's got, if I'm not mistaken," Drew commented.

The journalist/intern nodded. "Good ear. Originally from Snowpoint City, born and raised. This climate isn't exactly what I'm used to, which is why I'm dressed so, uh, unprofessionally."

May hadn't consciously noticed, but at the mention of his attire she silently agreed with him. He was clad in a white muscle shirt and a pair of athletic shorts, and for all that was still sweating profusely. Giant beads of perspiration were snaking through a head of neck-length, dark brown hair and running unmolested down his face. It looked as though he had long since given up on trying to wipe any of it away. She guessed he probably wasn't bad-looking cleaned up, though. She didn't envy him. Having to go from a town of perpetual snowfall to a desert region could not have been a pleasant experience.

"Where are my manners, though? My name's Shawn, Shawn Calvert." He seemed to have calmed down considerably now that his alleged near-death experience of being lost in the forest was over, and his excited grin had morphed into a more easy one. "It's nice to meet you two."

May and Drew echoed the pleasantries, then Drew said, "I think I heard you say something about a Lab earlier. Are you going to the Pokemon HQ Lab around here?"

"That's the one. Don't suppose you could point me in the right direction?"

"I think we can do you one better. We're going there ourselves. You're welcome to tag along with us if you want."

May was mildly taken aback at the offer. It must have taken a near-herculean effort to even ask her if she wanted to travel with him, but now her loner friend was giving a newcomer he hadn't known for more than five minutes the same option.

"I would really appreciate that," said Shawn. "You can probably tell my sense of direction isn't my strong suit." He paused, and May could almost _see _a light bulb going off over his head. "Hey, you think as long as I'm around, you might be willing to give me a few quotes for my pieces? An exclusive interview with the big-shot Contest heartthrobs might earn me a few points with my bosses back home."

"Heart... Throbs?" May's reaction was somewhere between flattery and affrontery, but as far as she could tell the journalist meant no disrespect. He was just enthusiastic. "Are people really calling us heartthrobs?"

"Sure! You hit a lot of people's buttons! You're young, you're innovative, you're kind of a dark horse underdog team from what I'm told since there's a couple of Grand Festival winners here. Plus, you have that whole will-they-or-won't-they thing going on, I guess. People love that stuff."

May turned beet-red. Drew was showing admirable restraint, gazing at Shawn with nothing more than raised eyebrows. It was basically his thoughtful look, May knew. He was probably unaware, she reflected inwardly, that it was as intense as any of his facial expressions and could have a disquieting effect on some people, but then again Shawn didn't seem the type of person to be disquieted by very much.

"I don't see a problem with that," Drew said slowly.

May had recovered, and decided to tease him a little. "You sure, Drew? You don't seem like the type to do interviews like that."

"No such thing as bad press, right? Anyway, we'll do it on one condition." Here he nodded at her. "With my partner's approval, of course. Kindly leave the 'will-they-or-won't-they thing' out of it."

May nodded hurriedly. "Definitely. And it sounds good to me. I think it'll be fun to get interviewed by a real professional writer!"

Shawn folded his hands behind his head nonchalantly. "You flatter me. And that's no problem. I've got no interest in that anyway. Matter of fact, I feel like I should apologize on behalf of my, er, fellow media vultures for that. I think if you're reporting on Contests you should report on Contests. Leave the personal lives out of it. Let the Coordinators do what they like on their own time, right, Luxray?"

"Luxray." It was becoming clear that the Pokemon had a speak-when-spoken-to attitude.

"Good," Drew said. "Just for the record, though, we really aren't together."

"Definitely not," May agreed.

"Nope."

"Mm-hmm."

"I believe you," said Shawn. With that constant grin on his face it was difficult to say whether he actually did or not, but either way he appeared content to leave it at that. "That can be for another day anyway. For now, I think we're off for the Lab?"

* * *

With Shawn's surprise appearance, May had forgotten all about her convictions that they were lost, and happily let Drew take the lead with navigating again. He didn't speak much as they walked, content to let the conversations be carried by the much more talkative May and Shawn, who had revealed himself to be a much more normal person than he had seemed at first. He had returned Luxray, explaining that he usually only walked with him when he got lonely.

"So, what made you want to write for a newspaper, Shawn?" May inquired.

Shawn shrugged indifferently. "I don't, really. I'd much rather be an actual author of real books sometime down the line, but apparently _that's not a viable career choice unless you already know someone in the business._" The last part of that sentence was accompanied by some silly arm-waving and was said in a tone that made it clear he didn't care much for the opinion of whoever it was he was mocking. Who exactly that was was anybody's guess. "Everybody has to pay their dues in some way, though, I guess," he said.

May placed a finger on her chin philosophically. "Huh. I wonder what I'd be doing if I wasn't competing in Contests… Sometimes I'm jealous of people like you who have it all figured out."

"You seem like you're doing pretty well for yourself. Different strokes, right? Plus, I've got a few years on you two. I've done my time. I tried the whole Pokemon journey thing and it was fun, but it just wasn't for me. I'll take a boring old job in the air conditioning any day of the week."

"How come you're taking a detour to the Lab instead of heading straight towards Goldengrove and the next hotel, then?" Drew asked.

"Another interview target. Professor Krane has done a lot of good work in the field of Pokemon research, but he doesn't get much recognition since he works out of a region so far removed from the rest of the world." Shawn had his hands behind his head again, seemingly his go-to position when thinking carefully about something. "From what I've heard about him, I get the impression he's not the kind of man to care about that, but I figured it was worth a shot anyway. How about you two?"

"Professor Krane's a family friend," May answered. "I just wanted to give him a quick hello." She looked at her fellow Coordinator, who had his map out and was inspecting it closely. "How far away are we?"

"It looks like it's just up ahead. We should be there in another twenty minutes."

They were there in fifteen, and completely unprepared for the sight that awaited them. "Disarray" would have been a kind way to describe the state of Orre's famous Pokemon HQ Lab when they arrived. "Chaos" would likely have been more apt.

All around them, as far as the eye could see, Pokemon were running rampant, being chased after by pale scientists who didn't look like they had any business chasing anything, long white lab coats trailing behind them as they tried in vain to get the Pokemon under some semblance of control. Up the steps directly in front of them, a Zigzagoon was, well, zig-zagging its way around the brick path, easily avoiding the clumsy efforts of a gangly researcher to dive on top of it. Elsewhere, a Plusle and Minun had teamed up to cause an extra degree of grief for a particularly unfortunate middle-aged man in overalls, who would repeatedly corner one of them only to be given a light shock by the other. His hair was starting to stick up in arrogant defiance of gravity. The only person around who looked to be having any luck at all was a teenage girl with bright blue hair, who had just managed to return a Baltoy to its Poke Ball and then quickly set off after a Shuppet.

The three errant travelers stood stunned, mouths agape. Even Drew was knocked off balance. May was the first to speak. "What the heck is going on here? Wild Pokemon going crazy? I thought you said there weren't many in this region!" This was directed, naturally, at Drew, who was beginning to realize that most of the blame for what went wrong on this journey was going to fall on him.

"I don't think they're wild. Looks more like some research subjects staged a prison break, so to speak."

Just then, a small Pokemon resembling a large cotton ball floated past them, followed by a woman. Not followed closely, as it is difficult to make any kind of speed in a long pink coat and high heels, but she was certainly trying hard. She stopped for a moment to bend and place her hands on her knees to catch her breath, and May took that opportunity to speak. "Um, excuse me! This is the Pokemon HQ Lab, right?"

The woman straightened and looked to her in surprise. "Yes, but I'm sorry, we're not offering tours at the moment." Another breath. "We've got an escape attempt on our hands at the moment."

"We can see that," Drew said dryly. "Can we help?"

"Are you trainers?"

May opened her mouth, presumably to clarify that they were Coordinators, but Drew got the first word in. "Yes."

"Then you can probably help. Just keep them busy and we'll have their Poke Balls out as soon as possible." She pointed at the retreating cotton ball. "I think Cottonee is the ringleader. He's the first priority."

"May?"

"Yeah, I got it." She took off in its direction.

"Shawn, you think you can-" Shawn must have thought he could, because he was already gone when Drew turned to him.

The woman had regained her breath and now spoke again. "Thank you so much for your help. Just try not to hurt them, please. I don't think they know any better."

"That goes without saying, ma'am. Do you know how many there are?"

"Around a dozen, I think. They should all be in the immediate area; I can't imagine they'd be brave enough to venture any further."

Drew nodded and rushed past her, heading up the steps to aid the poor man with the Zigzagoon.

* * *

Around the back of the lab, the Cottonee had backed itself into a corner with May close at its proverbial heels. It was a good thing, she thought, that the dense forest surrounding the lab was blocking any strong gusts of wind that might come through. The small Pokemon looked as though it would fly for miles if someone just decided to blow on it slightly.

It looked around frantically for an avenue of escape, but, finding none, turned and faced the slowly advancing brunette, who was doing her best to appear non-threatening.

"Hi there, little guy." It could easily have been a female, as the finer points of Pokemon biology were all but lost on May, especially for species she'd never seen before, so she hoped the means of reference was nonspecific enough to work. "Why don't you go ahead and come on back inside with me? I know everybody wants to get out and just run around every once and a while, but I'm sure- OOF!"

Cottonee had launched itself straight into May's midsection. It was too crude to be a real Tackle attack, and indeed its tiny stature and soft body made for a less than impressive combination, but it was at least enough to get May to stumble and gawk at the thing, offended. "Hey!"

Cottonee was glaring at her defiantly.

"You've got a big attitude for such a cute little Pokemon," she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. She took a step forward again. "Come on, don't be like this."

Cottonee tried its pseudo-Tackle again, but this time May was ready. She caught it firmly in her arms and was ready to celebrate her cleverness when it began to wriggle free. She had expected that much, but hadn't counted on it being relatively slick, and despite her best efforts it slipped out back into its former position, looking back at her with another glare.

"Cottonee!" It said angrily.

May let out a long breath. This was turning out to be more difficult than she'd anticipated. "Well, if you're not gonna come easily, I guess…" Her hand lowered to the Poke Balls on her belt, but truthfully she wasn't too sure what to do. Her team members were all far too strong to actually battle with; she didn't want to hurt the little Pokemon. Soon, though, an idea struck her.

"Altaria, you're up!"

There was a red flash and the beautiful Humming Pokemon emerged from May's thrown Poke Ball, floating in the air and prepared for battle. May had come across her as a young Swablu outside of Violet City in Johto and formed a speedy rapport with it. She had grown into one of May's most trusted partners, as she was extremely handy in both the Appeal and Battle Rounds of Contests.

Now, though, her stance had morphed into one of total perplexity as she saw the diminutive cotton ball looking bravely up at her, ready for a fight. She looked back at her trainer in bewilderment, who shrugged apologetically. "Yeah, I know. It's a long story. Can you just Sing it to sleep, please?"

Altaria nodded and turned back to the Cottonee. Just as it was opening its beak to Sing, two big Razor Leaf attacks hit her in the head. They glanced off; Altaria had a double resistance to the Grass type and Cottonee was far too weak to overcome that, but it definitely wasn't scared. For the second time Altaria threw a confused glance at May, who again just shrugged her shoulders.

Altaria began another attempt at a Sing attack, but also for the second time was cut off, this time by a relatively strong gust of sparkling wind, which actually knocked her out of the air and back a few feet. She got up quickly, more surprised than anything.

"What was that?" May gasped. "Altaria, are you okay?" At her Pokemon's embarrassed nod, she shook off her shock. "Okay, um… Maybe give it a Peck attack? Not too hard, alright?"

Altaria floated back into the air and then, without warning, dove at the Cottonee, hitting it with a Peck that May could tell was only at about a quarter of the Pokemon's power. It did the job, though, sending it flying backward where it bounced off one of the Lab's walls and hung shakily in the air, still not willing to give up.

"Okay, Altaria, _now _Sing."

May covered her ears, a practiced reflex, as a soothing melody fell out of Altaria's beak, sending slowly drifting music notes in the Cottonee's direction. The effect was instantaneous. The Pokemon's eyes closed as soon as the song started, and it fell to the ground gently. May walked over and picked it up, cradling it lightly in her folded arms.

"Thanks, Altaria. Return now." Altaria cried her name proudly before being struck by the red light of the Poke Ball, which May fastened tightly to her belt. "Okay, better go see if the others still need any help."

* * *

Drew, at the very least, wasn't in need of much help, but to be fair the Pokemon he was dealing with were much more agreeable than the Cottonee had been. He was athletic enough to catch up to the haphazard Zigzagoon without any trouble, which he passed off to the panting researcher who tried and mostly failed to gasp out a thanks. The next order of business was a Slakoth who had made its way up a tree, which he sent Flygon to retrieve. He knew the green dragon had been itching to stretch its wings, so he was killing two Pidgeys with one Rock Throw on that score.

He rounded a corner towards the east branch of the dirt path of the lab, just to make sure no Pokemon had wandered any further than the woman in pink had calculated. He hadn't gotten far when he heard a strange noise coming from the trees to his right.

He stopped, turned, peered into the woods looking for the source. He saw nothing. He listened, but the noise didn't come again.

Drew waited for another moment and then began walking back the way he came. May, knowing her, was probably having trouble with what she was doing and-

He paused. There it was. It sounded like… a sniffle? He took a few cautious steps into the forest, and it was there that he found the source.

Hiding behind a tree was a small, blue and white, bear-like Pokemon, looking up at Drew apprehensively. There was a long string of mucus drooping from its nose, which certainly explained the odd sniffling noise. It didn't look scared, just disoriented. Drew squatted down and raised his hands up in a non-threatening fashion. "Hey, little buddy."

The Pokemon sized him up for a long while and then crept out a little further from behind the tree, seemingly having decided he was in no danger. Drew gave him what he considered to be his most winning smile and went on. "You lost?"

A few seconds passed and then the Pokemon nodded hesitantly.

Drew chuckled. "Yeah, you don't seem like much of an escape artist. Got caught up in all the excitement, huh?"

Another nod.

"Well, come on, then. I'll get you back to the Lab. Just follow me." He straightened and took a preliminary step backward, but was interrupted by another noise. This time it sounded more like a growl. And it was close.

The Coordinator's hand instinctively flew to his belt where his Poke Balls rested, ready to defend himself and the bear cub Pokemon, but almost immediately realized it was unnecessary, as the noise had come from the bear cub itself. Or, more accurately, its stomach.

Drew chuckled again, and then shook his backpack off his shoulders and onto the ground, reaching inside and pulling out an Oran Berry. He offered it in an outstretched hand, and the Pokemon crept forward slowly and took it, using both hands to shove it in its mouth and chewing it quickly. The taste must have been agreeable to it, for it grinned happily and spoke for the first time. "Cubchoo!"

"'Cubchoo,'" Drew repeated. "So that's what you're called? You must be from a pretty far-off region or something; I've never heard of a species called Cubchoo before…"

The Cubchoo didn't respond, just looked up at him with big oval eyes. If it had any lingering doubts about him, they were gone now.

He shrugged. "Guess I can ask the Professor. Let's go, Cubchoo."

* * *

Minutes later, Drew and May were inside the Lab, in the midst of assisting the staff in returning all of the Pokemon to their respective Balls when the woman in pink entered from outside. "Do you two have any idea where that other friend of yours went? He helped us get our Meditite back but I haven't seen him since and we still have one Pokemon not accounted for…"

They shook their heads no, but as if on cue, the doors opened and Shawn strode in. Luxray was trailing close at his heels, carrying the unmoving form of a Lombre on his back. The woman gave him a disapproving look, but he was smiling, unconcerned. "Don't worry, it's just paralyzed. We had a little bit of a disagreement about its coming back inside, but Luxray hit it with a Thunder Wave and it suddenly saw things my way. Here." He lifted Lombre off of Luxray's back and set it down on a nearby table, recalling the Gleam Eyes Pokemon afterwards. "Is that everyone?"

The woman took one last head count and then nodded. "It looks like it." She gave the trio a pleasant smile. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Lily Evans, the second-in-command here. Thank you all so much for your help." They gave her the usual "you're welcomes" and "no big deals" and she went on. "That was something of an awkward situation, I apologize. One of the newer aides took his eyes off of Cottonee to check something on his monitor and before he knew what was happening, the little troublemaker was going around and releasing all of his friends. They ran out of the building before we could stop them and, well, you saw what happened then. I don't know what we'd have done if you hadn't happened by when you did. I guess Jovi would have had to handle all of them."

"Um, who's Jovi?" May asked. Cottonee was still in her arms, slumbering peacefully.

"Oh, sorry, that's my daughter. You probably saw her; she was the girl with the blue hair."

"Oh, her. Yeah, she seemed to know what she was doing."

Lily nodded and smiled again. "She's a talented trainer," she said proudly. "Takes after her brother in that respect. But she's never wanted to go on a journey anywhere but around Orre. She likes just staying around here and helping with the research. All the Pokemon really love her."

As if taking another cue, the girl in question had just stepped out of the elevator on the far side of the room, and she now walked over to the group, the Plusle and Minun from earlier riding on her shoulders. "Okay, Mom, Pluplu and Mimi apologized to Adon. Is everything under control?"

"Thanks to these three." Lily gestured at the travelers. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your names."

Introductions were exchanged. Jovi was quite bubbly for a girl whom May judged to be about the same age as her. It was easy to see why all the Pokemon would be so fond of her.

"So you two are Coordinators? That's so cool! I think I'd probably be one, too, if I was going to go on a Pokemon journey." She threw a wide grin at her mother. "I can't, though. This place wouldn't make it a week without me around."

May laughed. "You'll have to let me know if you ever change your mind. I can give you some awesome tips."

"I have a tip for you, too. Don't take hers." This, inevitably, came from Drew, who was rewarded with an icy glare.

Jovi, however, giggled, then gasped and clapped both hands over her mouth. She jumped up and down a couple of times excitedly. "Wait a minute, I recognize you now! You're that Drew guy who's in the magazines sometimes! I know one of them just had those pictures of you at the beach a couple of months ago!"

Drew visibly flushed. "Oh, Arceus, you saw those? Just, uh, for the record, those pictures were taken without my knowing…" He could see May out of the corner of his eye positively beaming at the fact that he had something embarrassing happen to him. _I'll never hear the end of this, _he thought.

Jovi clapped. "This is so exciting! Celebrities at the Lab! Oh! And aren't you two dating?" They both opened their mouths to protest, but she was on a roll and wasn't stopping. "How _cute! _What a story! Two ex-rivals coming together in romance… Aww, and you even act like it. All the teasing and stealing glances when the other isn't looking-"

"We don't do that!" May was as red as her bandanna and looked like she was trying to make herself as small as possible. Drew was merely palming his face like he couldn't believe that the rumors had spread this far.

"Uh, can I have a turn now?" Shawn had his hand raised like a timid student in a classroom. "First off, I think you, miss Jovi, should put down the tabloids and pick up a novel every now and again." His gaze shifted to Lily. "Ma'am, is Professor Krane around? I was hoping to at least get a quick interview with him."

"Oh, yeah!" May was eternally grateful for the change of subject. "That's actually why me and Drew came, too. I mean, not to interview him, but my father knows the Professor and I wanted to say hello."

"Yes, he's in his office, I believe. He locks himself in there sometimes when he's hard at work, but I'll go get him. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."

She departed and the four teenagers were left on their own, the rest of the staff having already gone in the midst of the conversation. Jovi was looking at the ground uncomfortably. "Er, sorry if I embarrassed you guys. I'm just a little starstruck, I guess. We don't get a lot of visitors here, and none of them are famous. Well, except my brother, that is."

May blinked. "Who's your brother?"

"Oh, you haven't heard of him? He's the one who took down the Cipher criminal organization seven years ago. Now he's off who-knows-where training. I don't get why, since he's already gotta be the strongest trainer in the world, but that's his thing."

"Wait, I remember reading about the fall of Cipher. That was your brother?" Shawn asked incredulously. "Wow, now _that _would be a big interview. Do you have a number I could reach him at?"

"You know, for someone who says he hates working for a newspaper, you sure seem eager to get the big scoop," Drew remarked.

"If you had to work as an unpaid intern, you'd do whatever you could to scrounge up a promotion, too."

Drew made another snide comment, but May wasn't listening anymore. She pointed at the Plusle and Minun on Jovi's shoulders. "So these are your Pokemon, huh?"

"Yep!" She replied cheerfully. "They weren't trying to escape like all the others, they were just messing with poor Adon because they were bored." She stopped as the pair nuzzled her cheeks affectionately. "They picked that up from me in my younger years, I'm afraid."

Lily returned just then with a bespectacled, unassuming man in a long lab coat. He took a long look at May and then gave her a kind smile. "You're May Maple? Gosh, last time I saw you you didn't even come up to my waist. Look at you all grown up."

"Professor Krane!" She cried. She gingerly placed Cottonee down on the table and then ran over, embracing him eagerly. "It's so good to see you!"

"You as well," the professor said, returning the hug. "How is Norman? I haven't spoken to him in a long while."

"He's good! Still winning more than he loses." May released him and grinned. "He's got so much time on his hands now that me and Max are both gone that he trains like a crazy man."

"That sounds like him, all right." He took a step towards Drew and Shawn and offered his hand. "You must be May's friends. John Krane, it's nice to meet you." There was another brief round of introductions and then Krane looked at Shawn. "Lily tells me you're a writer, and you want to interview me, eh?"

"If it's not too much trouble, yes sir."

"No trouble at all, but you might be disappointed. I'm not as interesting as you might think." Krane clasped his hands behind his back and half-turned. "Come with me, everybody. I'll give you a tour and then you can stay for dinner if you want. That should give us all plenty of time to talk."

* * *

The tour took very little time for such a large laboratory. Krane didn't bother going into the finer details of the research equipment, knowing most of the information would go over the heads of his guests. Also, it was already late in the afternoon and he didn't want to hold them up for too long.

Dinner, conversely, was a rather magnificent affair. The rarity of visitors to the Lab gave the chef little opportunity to show off, so he took full advantage of the excuse afforded him this night. And, in turn, May of course took full advantage of the offerings, having forgotten about her stomach ache from earlier. She feasted liberally. It all made for a very pleasant evening. Shawn got his quotes from Krane, May was able to catch up with him somewhat, and Drew mostly just listened politely, hardly able to get a word in edgewise when the table was full of animated talkers.

All too soon, though, it came time to leave. If the trio was able to put a bit more distance behind them before setting up camp for the night, they would make it to Goldengrove, the site of the next Contest, by the following night.

Krane had excused himself a few moments before they stood up from the table and now returned, holding a Poke Ball in his hand. Before anyone could ask about it, he held it out to May, who gave him a blank look. "What's this?"

"My personal thank you for assisting with the Pokemon earlier. I'd like you to take Cottonee with you."

The blank look turned to one of total astonishment. "What?"

"It sounds like you had quite a time with her earlier." May had recounted her difficulties with the Pokemon at dinner to much laughter from the rest of the table. "To tell the truth, she's more trouble than she's worth at this juncture. We've more or less finished with our research on her and she's been acting out like this more and more often lately. I think she needs to get out and see the world, and it sounds as though you handled her very well. I trust you to take good care of her, May."

"Someone trusts May?" Drew said, sarcasm oozing from his voice. "These truly are end times."

It was a testament to how taken aback May was by the whole situation that she didn't even pay attention to him. She reached out her hand with some hesitance and took the Ball from Krane, looking at it uncertainly. "Are you sure?"

Krane smiled. "I'm sure. She's in good hands with Norman Maple's daughter."

Soon May returned the smile. "Okay then. I promise I'll train her really well! Thank you so much!"

"How nice," Shawn said. "I'm gonna have to work this into the article."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be a big help in our Contests. Thanks, Professor," said Drew.

"You're quite welcome. Just a couple of things: Cottonee evolve through use of a Sun Stone, so if you find one over the course of your journey, give some thought to using it. According to my colleague in Unova, the evolved form is a speedy little thing."

"Ah, so Cottonee are native to Unova, huh? That explains why I've never seen one before."

"Indeed. Also, they are part Fairy-Type. That attack she used on your Altaria earlier was likely Fairy Wind, which is super-effective against Dragons. There aren't too many Pokemon of that type known, and they aren't very well understood yet. It could give you a great edge in your Contests."

"I didn't even know there was such thing as a Fairy Type," Drew commented.

"Me neither. That's so cool, though!" May added.

"That's one of the biggest reasons we had her here: researching the type," Krane said absentmindedly. "It would've been nice to have a pure Fairy-type, but this was the best we could do as of right now. Oh, before I forget, let me give you my P-DA number in case you have any more questions."

"Um, will that work?" May asked. "We only have PokeNavs."

"If they're the PokeNav Plus version, they'll work just fine. They're programmed to handle communication between devices of any region."

He recited the number to May, who entered it into her PokeNav carefully and then grinned again. "Well, thanks again, Professor Krane!"

"Yeah, we'd like to stay longer, but we should really get going," Drew said. "We've still got some ground to cover before- huh?" He'd been interrupted by a gentle but earnest tugging on his pants, and when he looked down he was surprised to find the Cubchoo from earlier as the culprit. Having gotten Drew's attention, the little cub pointed its paw up at the Poke Balls on his belt. "Um, I'm sorry, I don't know what you're trying to tell me."

It was Jovi who stepped forward with an explanation. "I think Cubchoo's saying he wants to go with you, too, Drew."

"Wait, really?" Drew looked up at Krane skeptically. "Oh, I couldn't do that. We've already taken one Pokemon from you."

"Aww, but he's so cute!" May exclaimed, kneeling down to get a closer look. Then, remembering her manners, said, "Er, but you're right. You've been way more than generous already."

They were both surprised when Krane gave another of his kindly smiles and shook his head. "It's not up to me. If Cubchoo wants to go with Drew, who am I to stop him? That'd hardly be fair." He turned his eyes upon the Pokemon in question. "Is that what you want, Cubchoo?"

Cubchoo cried out its name and nodded its head eagerly, the string of nasal mucus swinging back and forth.

"It's settled, then. There's nothing more important than a Pokemon's happiness," said Krane. "Jovi, would you go get the Poke Ball, please?"

"Sure! You're so lucky, Drew. Cubchoo's a real sweetheart. Don't let him fool you, though, he can be quite a battler when he's motivated."

She headed towards one of the offices. Krane adjusted his glasses. "Speaking of battling, I imagine you're probably wondering about the, er, snot. As best we can tell, that's the source of power for his attacks. You might've guessed he's an Ice-type. Be sure to keep him healthy, if he gets sick, the mucus gets watery and his attacks are less effective." Krane scratched his head awkwardly. "It's not very scientific, but that's actually how we originally figured that out."

Drew nodded his thanks, and by this time Jovi had reappeared with the Poke Ball. She tossed it to Drew, who squatted down as he had earlier, face to face with Cubchoo. "You sure about this, little buddy?"

Cubchoo nodded once more and reached out its paw, touching the button on the front of the Ball. The red light flashed out and captured him, and suddenly Drew had a new member of the team.

Shawn had watched these proceedings with his easy smile on his face all the while, and now folded his hands behind his head and laughed. "No wonder you two have so much success. Even the Pokemon can tell you're good people."

"Yep, Drew sure has Cubchoo fooled," May teased.

Drew rolled his eyes, stood up and turned to Krane, Lily, and Jovi. "Thank you very much. He's in very good hands. And thank you for your hospitality as well."

May and Shawn echoed the expressions of gratitude and they all made their way to the door, escorted by the three Lab workers. "Thank you for stopping by," Krane said. "Tell your father to get out of the Gym every once in a while, May. Maybe come see us over in Orre sometime."

"I sure will! Thanks again!"

"Good luck in the Ribbon Cup, you two!" Jovi said enthusiastically. Pluplu and Mimi, back on her shoulders, cried out in agreement.

"We'll keep up with your progress," Lily added. "I'm sure you'll do great."

The travelers walked down the path away from the Lab, turned to give Krane and the others a last wave goodbye, and headed back into the forest. May was holding Cottonee's Poke Ball at arm's length, gazing at it joyfully. "What a fun day! I can't believe I have a Fairy-type now. Those other Coordinators are never gonna see this coming!"

"It should definitely give us some more versatility," Drew said thoughtfully. "You actually had a good idea about going to the Lab, May."

May made a big show of gasping and stopping dead in her tracks. "Drew Hayden just complimented me? Said I had a good idea? Did I hear that right?"

"I heard it too," said Shawn. "It even sounded like he meant it."

"Oooooh, this calls for another installment of 'May's Expeditions!' Come on, Drew, say something to the camera."

"No, May, not again. No, put your fingers down, once was already one time too many. Come on, I'm not doing this again..."

* * *

**AN: **Yeah, a lot happened here. Over eight thousand words. It's long, but I really couldn't justify splitting this up anywhere. There was nothing in here that felt like a chapter end except, well, the actual end. "Action-packed" might be a stretch but I'll settle for entertaining, I hope.

I figured this was a good way to get around the scarcity of wild Pokemon in Orre. I didn't want to just have Drew and May get one new team member apiece in the story, but that was realistically what was going to happen if I didn't get creative. Thus, gifts. I hope the misadventures at the Lab made for enough of an interesting plot that getting to them actually receiving the Pokemon didn't feel like a chore. Hopefully those of you who've played the Orre games appreciated seeing a few of the characters from them. I kind of took some liberties with Jovi, since I figured she'd probably grow out of that annoying habit of referring to herself in the third-person, but I don't think that's a stretch.

Also, yes, we have an OC traveling partner. That probably raises some eyebrows for a few people, because it usually does for me, but not to worry, Shawn won't be an overpowered Mary Sue that takes over the story. He's in because traveling groups of three, I think, are more interesting than just two. There's another reason, too, but that won't become clear until the very end. Long story short, he'll hang around at least for a while but not do anything very significant. This is still a May and Drew fic.

And speaking of which, I hope everyone's enjoying the subtle nods I'm giving the romance part of the story. I know it's not a focus right now, and that's by design. I hate quick-moving romances. The ship teases developed at a snail's pace in the anime, and I'm trying to stay true to that because at the moment they're more focused on the Ribbon Cup than how cute the other one is. It's there, and each of them is acutely aware of it as far as their own selves are concerned and it rears its head with some frequency, but they aren't letting it control them. That's how a lot of teenage crushes are. For you readers that love the fluff, I hope you're enjoying the story anyway. If not, that's fine too. I knew when I began this fic that it wouldn't be for everyone. I hope you'll stick it out regardless, because I have faith in my ability to make the slow development worth it in the end.

That's all for this time, folks. Next chapter is the Goldengrove Contest. Thanks for reading, and I'll see ya then.


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